"Discharged Employees Allegedly Level SeriousClaims Against Meta after Being Labeled as Non-Underperformers"
Fired Up! Ex-Meta Employees Speak Out Against Performance Claims
In a recent wave of terminations, Meta let go of around 3,500 workers, categorizing them as "low performers." However, eight former employees doubt the validity of this label and shared their concerns with us, remaining anonymous for fear of the consequences.
After a warning from Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, that he would raise the bar for performance, the company set its sights on trimming its workforce. In February, 3,500 employees, roughly a fifth of Meta's workforce, received their pink slips. But were they truly "low performers?"
The fired employees did not only lose their jobs, some felt publicly humiliated by the "low performer" label. They assert they delivered satisfactory work and even received positive reviews before their termination. Since late April, they have been receiving their severance pay.
Meta insists that these layoffs were performance-based and that previous evaluations were not downgraded. The company is renowned for its "high-performance" culture and is keen on holding its employees accountable.
"Not a Low Performer!"
One former HR employee got back to work after five months of parental leave to find his team had lost nearly 10% of its members. His mid-year evaluation read: "meets or exceeds expectations," a mid-positive result. However, by the end of the year, he was downgraded to "meets most expectations," making him eligible for termination.
"I questioned my manager," he recalled, "but he was cryptic and said it was part of Mark's plans. I felt publicly shamed by the 'low performer' label, even though I don't believe it fits."
Termination - Then a Job Offer?
A senior machine learning engineer at Meta was also caught off guard by her termination. Three days after her layoff, she received a call from a recruiter, offering her a job without an interview.
"The experience was surreal," she remembered. "The same email address, the same person. There was no confirmation of what had just happened."
Burnout and Evaluation Woes
A software engineer who joined Meta in May 2024 struggled due to internal disputes over a new feature he was developing. After taking a four-month burnout leave, he returned to find himself downgraded to "meets some expectations" in his evaluation. He couldn't understand how his performance was judged when he had only worked for ten weeks in 2024.
Dissatisfaction After Team Switch
A product manager who switched to the Tech department, Reality Labs, in 2023, reported a drastic change in her treatment. She was criticized for "blind ambition" despite consistent "exceeds expectations" ratings and positive feedback from colleagues.
Scared of the Email Template
A technical program manager was surprised when her seven-year tenure at Meta ended with a categorization as a "low performer."/p>
"My manager used a prescribed email to inform me of my dismissal," she shared. "It was heartless, like a machine."
Toxic Environment and Quotas?
Another program manager, with 17 years of experience, was let go despite good performance reviews and a glowing "redefines expectations" rating. She suspects that the company culture had turned cutthroat, with employees fiercely competing to avoid being labeled "low performers."
Salary and Unfair Treatment
An engineer who was the highest-paid member on his team was fired after a health crisis and a five-month leave. He felt his high salary may have made him a prime target for cost-cutting measures.
The engineer fears that Meta's classification of fired employees as "low performers" sets a dangerous precedent, allowing companies to rewrite an employee's career story and leaving them no recourse to fight back.
In conclusion, the ex-Meta employees paint a picture of a toxic and unforgiving corporate culture. While the company maintains that the layoffs were performance and strategy-driven, these staffers fear that they were victims of an aggressive downsizing, unrelated to their work performance. This raises questions about the ethics and fairness of such mass redundancies in the tech industry.
- One former Meta employee who was let go, despite a "meets or exceeds expectations" mid-year evaluation, questioned the validity of the "low performer" label and felt publicly shamed, stating, "I don't believe it fits."
- A senior machine learning engineer received a call from a Meta recruiter just three days after her termination, offering a job without an interview, leaving her perplexed about the circumstances.
- A software engineer, who joined Meta in May 2024, was downgraded to "meets some expectations" in his evaluation after taking a four-month burnout leave, despite only working for ten weeks that year. He expressed concern and confusion over how his performance was assessed.
