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Meta is preparing to axe thousands of workers, and employees say morale inside the company has never been lower.
The Facebook parent confirmed in an internal memo Monday that it will lay off approximately 10% of its global workforce on Wednesday, May 20, with notifications rolling out in three batches at 4 a.m. local time across different regions. The cuts amount to nearly 8,000 jobs.
Meta's head of human resources, Janelle Gale, told employees in the memo that the layoffs would be accompanied by sweeping organizational changes designed to sharpen the company's focus on artificial intelligence. Around 7,000 employees will be reassigned to new AI-related initiatives, while managerial layers are set to be eliminated in a push toward flatter, faster-moving teams.
"We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding," Gale wrote.
Inside Meta, however, the mood tells a very different story.
"Everyone is unhappy, the only people who are not unhappy are, literally, executives," one Instagram employee told WIRED. A policy staffer put it more bluntly: "I don't know anyone having a good time. The vibe is a bit 'over it.'"
The cuts add to the roughly 25,000 positions Meta has already eliminated over the past four years. But the layoffs are far from the only source of anguish. Employees have also raised alarms about widening pay gaps, mandatory role changes for senior engineers and the recent installation of software on company computers to track worker activity, ostensibly for AI training purposes, according to more than a dozen current and former employees who spoke with WIRED anonymously.
Many staff members say they are actively hoping to be laid off in order to receive the company's severance package, which includes a minimum of 16 weeks' pay and 18 months of healthcare coverage.
The discontent has spread beyond American borders. In the United Kingdom, frustrated Meta employees have begun organizing to form a labor union, accusing leadership of "cruel and shortsighted behaviors."
