Tech giant Meta has initiated another wave of layoffs, aiming to reduce its workforce by 5%, affecting approximately 3,600 employees across the United States, Europe, and Asia, according to a report by Business Insider.
In an internal memo, Meta justified the job cuts as performance-based, targeting employees who did not meet expectations. However, several former employees have contested this claim, arguing that they had never received negative performance reviews.
Employee Disputes Meta’s Justification
One such employee, Elana Reman Safner, who served as a product counsel for MetaWorks for over three years, was among those laid off. She voiced her concerns in a LinkedIn post, where she questioned Meta’s justification for the layoffs.
Safner, based in the United States, stated that she was let go shortly after returning from maternity leave, despite maintaining a consistent record of strong performance.
“Meta laid me off yesterday in its ‘performance-based’ layoffs, and I was blindsided. I have never received a review below ‘Meets All’ in my three-plus years at Meta,” she wrote.
She further alleged that many affected employees had a history of good performance but had recently taken leaves of absence. “Many laid off today have similar stories – a history of good performance and a recent leave of absence.”
Criticism of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg
While expressing gratitude for her colleagues at Reality Labs Legal, Safner also took a dig at Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
She listed several aspects of her job that she would not miss, including the unpredictability of her career path, mental strain, and Meta’s tendency to discontinue beloved products that did not align with Zuckerberg’s vision.
“Here’s what I won’t miss: my career trajectory being completely at the whim of product decisions I have no control over, mental overload, 34-page one-pagers, having 62 tabs open, deprecating beloved products because they weren’t ‘moonshot’ enough for Zuck, and Zuck’s newfound ‘masculine energy’—and being its collateral damage,” she wrote.
Her reference to Zuckerberg’s “masculine energy” appears to relate to his recent controversial statement on a podcast, where he suggested that American companies had become ‘neutered’ and needed to regain their masculinity.
Layoffs Follow Scrapping of DEI Program
Meta’s latest round of layoffs comes just weeks after the company terminated its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.
As Meta faces increasing scrutiny over its corporate decisions and workplace policies, these layoffs have fueled fresh debates over employee rights, corporate transparency, and workplace culture within the tech industry.
