Meta Employees Are Scrambling to Use Up Benefits Ahead of Layoffs
Ahead of Meta Latest wave of mass layoffs tomorrow, some employees are deserting their offices, abandoning their jobs and stocking up on benefits they could soon lose, several people at the company told WIRED.
Two employees describe a widespread rush to use a flexible $2,000 annual benefit, which can cover a variety of expenses, including health and wellness activities. A separate three-year credit of $200 for the purchase of audio equipment has led to a rush to buy Apple AirPods and other headphones. Another source says Meta’s offices have been largely empty this week, as people prioritize polishing their resumes and gather off-site to commiserate with friends for what could be their last time as colleagues. Employees are variously “paralyzed,” “freewheeling,” and “panicked,” according to sources.
Meta plans to lay off about 10 percent of its nearly 80,000 employees on Wednesday, with notices sent to affected workers’ home and work email addresses at 4 a.m. in their local time zone, according to a company-wide memo sent Monday. The cuts come at a time when the social media giant behind Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook is making record profits.
But CEO Mark Zuckerberg insists the company needs to free up cash to invest in AI data centers, and that Meta can just as well operate with fewer employees thanks to AI technologies that augment human labor.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. The company has already suffered three major rounds of layoffs since 2022, including as part of Meta’s one-off “year of efficiency” campaign in 2023. But even though the latest wave is smaller than some of those, it is facing increased scrutiny because it comes at a time of societal anxiety about the impact of AI on employment.
Within Meta, looming cuts are among many concerns that have sent morale sinking to unprecedented depths, according to 16 current and former employees who recently spoke to WIRED. Employees were also frustrated at being “drafted” into a new AI team without any choice and at the deployment of surveillance software that tracks the use of US workers’ laptops to train AI models.
Meta also plans to restructure internally by making mass layoffs, moving the remaining 7,000 employees to “AI initiatives” and converting more managers into individual contributors. That would bring the total number of people affected – either laid off or placed in a new role – to 20 percent of the current workforce, Reuters reported on Monday. WIRED has independently confirmed this report. Some parts of the business have been told they will not be affected at all.
But in recent days, employees preparing for the changes have shared checklists internally about what benefits they can receive and have kept documents such as performance reviews and pay stubs, according to one worker. Some teams gather Tuesday and Wednesday at bars and restaurants near Meta’s offices in New York and Menlo Park to eat and drink to forget their sorrows, several employees said. Management encouraged employees not to come to the offices on Wednesday.
