Nothing to say. Tired of these companies laying people off left, right, and centre. I know so many great people working at all such companies and this kind of ‘low performance’ layoffs are so disheartening and demotivating for people. I’ve heard people say that it leaves a black mark on people and their careers will be ruined at least temporarily. I don’t think that’s gonna happen honestly. People have short memories and no one is sitting and keeping track of who got laid off/ when etc.

However, how’s everyone feeling? It’s a sad bad day.

I've said it before. Nothing is truly safe or off the table.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/22/meta-layoffs-ai.html

Can someone help me make sense of this?

Meta, worth $1.82 trillion with a stock price of $719.80, just cut 3,600 people with nothing but a cold, soulless email and it’s got me reflecting.

I’ve been laid off before, so I know the gut punch. My heart goes out to the 3,600 people caught in Meta’s latest purge.

Let this be a reminder: No company is your family. No matter how loyal you are, they can drop you tomorrow without a second thought.

So, take your damn vacations. Burn through that PTO. If your kids are sick, be there. Stop checking emails after hours and on weekends. Because no matter how hard you grind or how dedicated you are, these companies aren’t loyal to you.

Meta just axed thousands of people—was that really necessary? Corporate America has zero loyalty. You’re just a number, easily replaced and forgotten.

Here’s the truth: Real job security is the one you create. Stop giving your nights and weekends to a company that would drop you in a heartbeat. Build your own thing—a side hustle, investments, whatever keeps you in control.

Because when Plan A disappears, you better have a Plan B.

Below is Zuckeberg’s internal memo, which CNBC obtained.

Meta is working on building some of the most important technologies of the world. AI, glasses as the next computing platform and the future of social media. This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams.

I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster. We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle, with the intention of back filling these roles in 2025. We won’t manage out everyone who didn’t meet expectations for the last period if we’re optimistic about their future performance, and for those we do let go, we’ll provide generous severance in line with what we provided with previous cuts.

We’ll follow up with more guidance for managers ahead of calibrations. People who are impacted will be notified on February 10 or later for those outside the U.S.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/14/meta-targeting-lowest-performing-employees-in-latest-round-of-layoffs.html

Lost my job at Meta on Monday, on the ground of under performing, which came as a surprise as I've always had excellent reviews, like all the others affected that day. I did request to see the documents from which they concluded that I wasn't meeting expectations, got a complete nonsense answer saying that reviews were done downward of performance cycle and therefor would not be prepared for impacted employees. Each state has different labor laws, but I just read that, at least in CA, employers must be able to produce documents to backup their decision to terminate an employee for low performance if challenged. Layoffs are always awful for those impacted, but what Meta did seems quite fishy legally. Could that be challenged? I have no intention to ever work for them again, but it sure would be nice to get the share of bonuses we rightly earned...

Meta will lay off roughly 600 employees within its artificial intelligence unit as the company looks to reduce layers and operate more nimbly, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday.

The company announced the cuts in a memo from its Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who was hired in June as part of Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. Workers across Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit and other product-related positions will be impacted.

Axios was first to report the cuts.

Meta has been aggressively investing in AI as it works to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Google, pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects and recruitment.

On Tuesday, the company announced a $27 billion deal with Blue Owl Capital to fund and develop its massive Hyperion data center in rural Louisiana. The data center is expected to be large enough to cover a “significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post in July.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/22/meta-layoffs-ai.html

Meta Begins New Layoffs: Meta started cutting 5% of workforce (4,000 jobs), including some high-performing employees. CEO Zuckerberg says cuts will make room to hire "strongest talent" for AI initiatives.

Source: InstaByte

I was one of the "performance-based" layoffs at Meta in Feb 2025. I was a top performer on my team—picked up on-calls, covered shifts, worked on critical systems. There was no signal I was at risk. On Feb 10, like so many others, I got the email and was laid off.

Fast-forward to April: I went through a tough 5-round interview with another company. I got a verbal offer and was told I was the top candidate. As background checks began, I proactively disclosed that I left Meta on April 18 (the actual termination date from the layoff). They asked why. I was honest and said I was part of the layoffs.

A week later, they rejected me.

It just… hurts. You try to do everything right. You show up, give your best, stay transparent—and still get punished for something outside your control. Thanks, Meta, for screwing me over not once, but twice.

EDIT: if you wanna know the company that rejected me please feel free to DM me

EDIT:Thank you all for your positive comments and feedback regarding this situation and those of you who messaged me directly as well

2025 - https://www.businessinsider.com/internal-memo-meta-increases-employees-rated-below-expectations-2025-5#:~:text=Meta%20has%20instructed%20managers%20to,out%20low%2Dperformers%22%20faster.

So this is going to come off as very naive (I'm not sure if this even allowed in here). I apologize if not. A loved one of mine was recently laid off from Meta. They've been in the tech industry 20+ years. They were part of a small company that was bought BY Meta during COVID. They were with the company 6 years before Meta and about 3 yrs with. They had really great performance reviews.

On the Friday before they had a meeting/catch up with a superior like normal where they talked about the good performance (bc really good things just happened with their product) - and what the upcoming plans for the month were and whatnot just to find out they were laid off yesterday morning.

Maybe I'm just naive to the tech industry and corporations. But the fact that this was a company before Meta and the guy who hired them back when it was a tiny group of people didn't reach out to say ANYTHING afterwards reeks of unprofessionalism (to me). Then the press slandering with "low performance" layoffs seems just vile. The bosses apparently knew that Friday meeting would be the last one.... why even have it?

My question is, is this normal? I know in the mind of corporations: profits = everything. They look at you at expendable. I get that. But I want to understand more of what they are going through without hounding them with questions (that seem obvious to them). So I thought I'd ask you guys. Is this just the way it is with some companies, and also I'm doing my best to be supportive, but I feel betrayed FOR them. I want to send love to all those that were laid off as well, this situation just feels like a shitshow.

Firstly I don't understand how a company can earn that much and simultaneously layoff 23% of their company.
Secondly, I feel like this is greed at its finest, who cares about those 20k people who probably went through a year of suffering.
Is the only way to make a good product is by treating their employees like crap, fire them?
I feel like they laid off too much, and started the an unnecessary ripple effect and now they are shamelessly touting how successful they are.... Those are real humans, with real lives, real mortgages, with real children that go to daycare...
Business is not done this way, business is when everyone can go home happy, and thats why it's tough, you chose the easy way out.
I don't understand why advertisers love meta so much, I thought they would avoid meta, but instead they chose to reward them, with 23 B in record profits last year.

I did not survive recent layoff. It kinda make sense, I worked there for 4 years after collage, I got an EE and the rest was MA, until this previous year, first half was a MA and I guess second MM?, main issue I was on red zone to get to IC5. It is tough to realize how much you depend on a company besides salary, I immigrated from outside the US, didn’t even have a personal US number. The small things are the ones that make realize the privilege, like, my fridge didn’t even have food cuz I was eating at the office every day.

Anyhow lesson learned

Edit: Apologies for the acronyms, I’m so used to the language. MA = meets all EE = Exceeds expectations MM = meets most expectations

This are ratings based on your performance, being MA what you get if you do what your manager expects for the half.

New grads are hired as ic3 and you have some time to get to the next level, so you have 2 years to go from ic3 to ic4 and 3 years from ic4 to ic5 that’s senior level, if you are close to the time limit, it is call red zone, if you are not able to get promoted you are fired, I think

I'm genuinely curious if the individuals affected by today layoffs at Meta have the grounds for a defamation lawsuit. Any lawyers here know? My LinkedIn is full of people affected and have the records to prove they've been consistently exceeding expectations.