'Hurt, disappointed': Meta employees share feelings after being laid off

Former Meta employees who got laid off in the tech giant's recent firing spree are taking to social media to share their stories of finding out the unfortunate news.

"Today's a weird day," said former program manager at Meta, Dylan Pacheco.

Mark Zuckerberg issued a statement on Wednesday announcing that 13% of the firm's staff, which is a staggering 11,000 people, was being fired. The CEO took the responsibility for things not going well in the company saying that he "got this wrong".

Apologising to the axed employees, he said that the layoffs were the "last resort" to save the company. He added that most of the recruiting team had been fired as the company was freezing the hiring process.

An Indian man, who joined Meta just two days before he got fired, was shocked to read the mail on Wednesday. Himanshu V had moved to Canada for his new job but was told to leave. 

"I relocated to Canada to join #Meta and 2 days after joining, my journey came to an end as I am impacted by the massive layoff. My heart goes out to everyone facing a difficult situation right now," he wrote in a LinkedIn post, saying that he was uncertain about his future like many of those fired suddenly.

"Let me know if you know of any position or hiring for a software engineer (Canada or India),'' he also said.

A former Meta recruiter, Brianna Sgro said that she was "hurt, uncertain, disappointed, and now jobless."

She said that she had been excited to work at the company she had "dreamed of working at" her "whole life" when she joined last year.

"I used to think about my commute to work 'Wow, what if I ever got the chance to work at Facebook or Google!' It felt like a dream that was unreachable," Sgro write. "Although all of these things come to an end today, I am so thankful to experience them."

Like Sgro, many other employees thanked Meta for the experience despite the lay-off. For some, it was their first-ever experience of a broad downsizing.

"Today, I was laid off from Meta. I could have never imagined my time at the workplace I felt safe and finally at home come to an end like this. After a promotion and making moves to grow my career internally, I never thought of leaving. My coworkers were absolutely the brightest and best talent out there," wrote another former recruiter Cai Mailhes.

Not all the reactions were positive. People expressed how they had been affected. "Finding out you got laid off via e-mail sucks," wrote former technical sourcer, Nathan Magner.

"No warning, and was told recently by a lead the team I worked on was a high priority and wouldn’t be affected," said another.

A communications manager who was on maternity leave said she received the e-mail at 5 am in the morning when she woke up to feed her three-month-old daughter.

"My heart sank," Indian-origin woman, Anneka Patel, shared in a LinkedIn post.

"People would ask if it was tough working there with all the bad press, but I would tell them that I was lucky because I got to tell the good stories about the amazing Facebook groups out there, and the work these community leaders are doing to help change the lives of others," she added.

A couple working at the company as technical recruiters expressed their frustration saying that they had just returned from their parental leave a few months ago.

The posts show that Meta has fired people from the US, UK, Ireland, Ghana and India. While Mark said that the most affected group was recruiters, others mainly affected by the fiasco included product designers, people from the marketing department, engineers, and those in Meta's Reality Labs.