'Everyone is unhappy': Meta employees say the mood is grim as the company reportedly plans to axe 8,000 workers

2 days ago 5

Dave Smith

Thu, May 14, 2026 astatine 10:15 AM CDT 5 min read

It's a unsmooth clip to beryllium moving astatine Facebook, Instagram, oregon 1 of Meta's galore different properties. Mark Zuckerberg's societal media elephantine volition reportedly manus retired astir 8,000 pinkish slips connected Wednesday, May 20, eliminating astir 10% of its planetary workforce. Notably, though, these cuts volition get connected the heels of 1 of the astir lucrative quarters successful the company's history: $56.31 cardinal successful gross and $26.8 cardinal successful nett income (1) for the archetypal 3 months of 2026, per Meta's Q1 net filing. For galore Meta employees, that stark opposition is seemingly driving morale into the dirt.

According to a caller study from WIRED (2), which interviewed much than a twelve existent and erstwhile Meta employees, vibes astatine the institution are mode disconnected course. According to 1 Instagram employee, "everyone is unhappy; the lone radical who are not unhappy are, literally, executives." Several staffers told WIRED they are openly hoping to beryllium laid off, if lone to cod the 16 weeks of severance and 18 months of paid wellness attraction that travel with it.

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Massive profits, and cuts to lucifer

In a memo archetypal reported by Bloomberg (3), Meta's main radical serviceman Janelle Gale told unit the layoffs would assistance to "run the institution much efficiently" and "offset the different investments we're making." Meta CFO Susan Li echoed that sentiment during the company's Q1 net call, saying a "leaner operating model" would assistance offset the company's monolithic superior expenditures (4), peculiarly astir artificial intelligence, which volition deed determination successful the ballpark betwixt $125 cardinal and $145 cardinal (5) this year, a monolithic leap up from its $72.2 cardinal walk successful 2025 (6).

At a caller municipality hall, Zuckerberg told employees (7) the cuts were a nonstop effect of AI infrastructure costs and declined to regularisation retired further reductions successful the 2nd fractional of the year. It's highly reminiscent of what Zuckerberg had said 3 years ago, erstwhile helium declared 2023 to beryllium Meta's "Year of Efficiency," which led to astir 21,000 occupation cuts crossed 2 waves — 11,000 layoffs successful November 2022 (8) and 10,000 much the pursuing March (9). According to Fortune (10), Meta has, successful total, chopped immoderate 25,000 positions betwixt 2022 and earlier this year. After the reported cuts this month, that cumulative toll should propulsion supra 33,000.

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