Looming Meta job cuts leave employees in ambiguity — ‘Might be goodbye for me’

As the May 20 layoffs loom over thousands of Meta employees, social media has been flooded with anxiety-ridden, dark humour posts as they wait to learn who will be out of a job.

In a memo sent to staff on Thursday, Meta said it shared some layoff details earlier than usual because the news had already leaked. The company plans to cut around 10% of employees next month and close 6,000 open roles.

"I know this leaves everyone with nearly a month of ambiguity, which is incredibly unsettling," wrote Meta's chief people officer Janelle Gale.

“I'm motivating myself to do stuff that I can put on my resume for my next job lol,” wrote another employee.

An employee wrote that having to wait almost a month to find out who creates anxiety. A person, who shared that this was their first week at the company, wrote: “It might be goodbye for me”.

For some Meta employees, the official confirmation of layoffs provided a sense of relief. After weeks of intense internal speculation, the formal announcement finally ended the uncertainty, according to a Business Insider report, citing an anonymous source.

Among the top responses to Gale’s internal post was an image of an elephant, in reference to a clear nod to leadership finally "addressing the elephant in the room." Since Reuters first reported the planned layoffs in March, employees have spent weeks speculating on the true scale of the cuts.

"Elephant addressed!" commented another employee. "Addressed to: “ELEPHANT”: Another posted a picture of an envelope that read.

Another employee told Business Insider that the announcement added pressure for them to deliver results because it's unknown which teams will be affected by the cuts — “I'm a little stressed about making an impact in the next month”.

Although the pressure has intensified, this isn’t the employee's first experience with company layoffs. Adopting a "business as usual" approach, an employee said they were preparing for the worst while navigating a month-long wait for further updates.

"I assume I'm always two months away from being laid off, no matter what leadership says, so I'm going to continue to operate as usual," the employee said.

Another employee asked if travel would be restricted the week of May 20. “We are not restricting travel company-wide. VPs will share team-specific guidance,” Gale responded.

In a longer post, one user said the downside might be surviving the cuts, “I feel more anxious about surviving this layoff”.

Recalling several rounds of layoffs at the company since 2022, the user said, “Because we all know it's just gonna get worse for those of us who are left behind and have to absorb even more work, amongst other declining factors in this sad fearful company.”