Ex-Meta worker warns of more firings despite Zuckerberg pledge that bloodbath is over | Latest Tech News
A freshly axed Meta worker warned that yet another spherical of cuts will observe Wednesday’s brutal layoffs in the months forward — despite assurances from CEO Mark Zuckerberg that this yr’s bloodbath is over.
Brittany Pierson, a Dallas-based content designer who spent over 4 years at Meta, said she truly felt “so much relief” after getting laid off because she had long anticipated that her function was destined to disappear because of artificial intelligence.
“If you survive, then you need to start training yourself on an entirely new role that AI can’t replace — all while mentally preparing yourself for the next layoff, which, by the way, is rumored to be happening in August,” Pierson said on Instagram, one of many social media posts shared by ex-Meta employees Wednesday.
Meta content designer Brittany Pierson said she felt “so much relief” after being laid off Wednesday. Britt Pierson / Instagram
“That’s not normal. It’s not healthy,” she added in the two-minute video.
Pierson’s declare of extra layoffs contradicts Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pledge that the mother or father company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp won’t ax any more employees this yr.
“I want to be clear that we do not expect other company-wide layoffs this year,” Zuckerberg said, according to GWN.
“I also want to acknowledge that we haven’t been as clear as we aspire to be in our communication, and that’s one area I want to make sure we improve.”
Wednesday marked the rollout of Meta’s beforehand announced plan to slash roughly 10% of its workforce — eliminating an estimated 8,000 jobs as the company pours billions into AI and restructures the social media giant around the technology.
Pierson, who labored at Meta for more than 4 years, said workers have been being told to practice for “an entirely new role that AI can’t replace.” Britt Pierson / Instagram
Meta has framed the layoffs as half of a “continued effort to run the company more efficiently” while shifting 1000’s of employees onto AI-focused initiatives, according to inner communications reported by Business Insider.
Online, current and former workers painted a image of a workforce rattled by seemingly nonstop restructuring, collapsing morale and fears that AI is steadily hollowing out white-collar jobs across Silicon Valley.
Some vented their frustrations on the office message board Blind, which permits customers to post anonymously after utilizing their work electronic mail to confirm their identification.
Laid off while ‘pregnant’
One laid-off worker claimed to have misplaced her job at Meta while seven months pregnant.
“I’m pretty devastated to hear the news that I’m laid off. I informed my manager that I was pregnant and initiated a parental leave request officially. Timing feels worse as I’m expecting my first baby this July … I’m lost and feeling very stressed about how to go handle pregnancy,” the worker wrote.
Another worker admitted to feeling “bad for surviving” the companywide culling.
“Please don’t think people laid off from Meta are bad performers, I’m an average performing scrub and I feel so bad for surviving when my teammate got laid off,” the worker said.
Just before the layoffs started, one Meta worker wrote that the company’s workforce was “in desperate need of therapy.”
“The amount of disrespect and chaos we deal with every day is unreal,” the particular person wrote. “Meta employees are in desperate need of therapy after all the constant layoffs and reorgs. Mental health is at an all-time low.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reshaping Meta around artificial intelligence as the company slashes roughly 10% of its workforce. Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Post has sought remark from Meta and Pierson.
Matthew Young, a Seattle-based software program engineer at Meta who had been there for a yr, told The Post in an interview that he discovered via a 4 a.m. electronic mail that he was among those who bought the ax. The prospect of layoffs had been hanging over his workforce for months, he said, calling the scenario “demoralizing.”
Still, the 29-year-old said he doesn’t suppose Meta will likely be ready to substitute the work he did with AI.
“That’s the story they’re telling us,” Young said. “Does AI increase productivity? Yeah. Does it replace people? No.”
Young said he was given 4 months of severance and he’ll start wanting for a new job.
“It’s not really a reflection on my own personal ability,” Young said. “I don’t think I’m going to have much of a hard time getting a job elsewhere.”
Employees described collapsing morale and nonstop restructuring inside Meta as the company rolled out sweeping layoffs Wednesday. AP
Pierson said the latest cuts felt essentially different from earlier Meta layoffs she witnessed.
“In the past, when we knew a layoff was coming, the mentality was very much: okay, we just got to get through it, and if you survive, things will eventually go back to normal,” she said.
“This was just phase one of eventually phasing out that role entirely due to AI. Not just at Meta, but across the industry.”
More to come?
A Meta worker affected by Wednesday’s layoffs told The Post the company will doubtless do a “performance-based” spherical of layoffs later this yr, “so they can label it as not a mass layoff.”
Asked about Zuckerberg’s popularity internally, the worker didn’t mince phrases.
“He doesn’t give a s–t,” the particular person said. “He’s focused on his bottom line.”
The worker said morale inside Meta has cratered amid fears of AI wiping out jobs across the tech industry.
A Meta worker affected by Wednesday’s layoffs told The Post the company will doubtless do a “performance-based” spherical of layoffs later this yr, “so they can label it as not a mass layoff.” REUTERS
“I don’t think it has the security or longevity that it used to,” the worker said. “I believe people are going to be making big profession pivots proper now to just escape tech.
“In the past, if you got laid off from Meta, you could go and jump to another company like Google, Amazon or these other big tech companies,” the worker added.
“But now with this layoff, knowing that it is because of AI, you can jump to one of those other companies, but you could also end up being laid off there six months later.”
The worker also described mounting inner strain to incorporate Meta’s in-house AI instruments into day-to-day work — even when it meant changing duties that employees felt succesful of doing themselves.
“We were monitoring our AI usage,” the worker said.
Managers appeared particularly anxious during the restructuring as Meta flattened organizational layers and pushed some supervisors into lower-ranking, particular person contributor roles, according to the source.
“The managers are living in more fear than anyone,” the worker said.
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