An American entrepreneur, Zach Wilson, claimed on X that Meta reached out to interview him for a principal role the same week the company decided to fire 8,000 people in a major shake-up attributed to AI. Wilson said he is certain that at least one of those 8,000 people has the qualities for the role for which he was approached, but the company did not retain anyone.“Why do companies expect us to be loyal to them if they don’t even try to retain us when they have hundreds of billions of dollars? It would be cheaper financially for them to retain one of those 8,000 people. It would be cheaper emotionally for the people who got let go too,” Wilson wrote in his now-viral post.“How do these big tech companies expect people to put their blood, sweat and tears into work while also saying, “yeah we’ll cut you at any moment.” I don’t know. The culture around AI and layoffs has gotten unbelievably toxic,” he wrote.Meta announced the massive layoff to its employees through an email that said the reduction in headcount was part of a “continued effort to run the company more efficiently” and thanked them for their contributions to Meta. Notifications began going out to roughly 10% of Meta’s 78,000 employees on Wednesday, notifying them that they are being laid off.“As previously shared, we have decided to reduce headcount as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making. Unfortunately, your role has been eliminated as part of today’s reorganization. Before sharing additional details, we want to thank you for all you’ve contributed to Meta. We appreciate the important role you’ve played in the company’s journey,” the mail said before going into the details of notice period, leaves, severance, etc.
