Meta layoffs are once again shaking the tech industry, with nearly 8,000 employees expected to lose their jobs as the company moves ahead with plans to cut around 10 per cent of its global workforce. The layoffs are expected to impact nearly 500 workers in the Bay Area, California, alone. The latest Meta layoffs come at a time when companies across Silicon Valley are aggressively investing in artificial intelligence while reducing human workforce costs. Employees have described the atmosphere inside the company as tense, uncertain and emotionally exhausting as workers wait to find out whether they still have jobs.
One longtime employee who has worked at Meta for more than a decade spoke anonymously about the emotional toll. “I tend to cry in the shower. I will say that when I’m in office, I have on more of a brave face,” the employee told the San Francisco Standard. “I definitely spend a good amount of that time sort of despondent somewhere in my house.” The employee said the work environment has become “chaos” ahead of what workers are calling a Wednesday-morning “bloodbath”.
Workers say uncertainty and lack of transparency have made Meta layoffs even harder
As per the report, the employee also said frustration with leadership inside the company has grown sharply during this phase of Meta layoffs. “I am generally dissatisfied with leadership and angry,” the employee said. “This is as anxious and stressed as I have ever been at a job.” According to the worker, one of the harshest parts of the process is that employees do not know they have been laid off until access to their accounts is suddenly removed.
“If I get laid off, I’ll find out via an email sent at 7 am to my personal email. By the time I get that email, I will already have lost access to all of my work accounts and everything internal,” the employee explained. “So if I am impacted, I won’t have any way to figure out who else was other than going on LinkedIn.” The employee also revealed they had once created a spreadsheet tool privately to track which employees had been laid off because information inside the company was so unclear.
AI expansion and billions in spending continue as employees lose jobs
The latest Meta layoffs are part of a much bigger restructuring happening across the tech industry. Companies are increasingly cutting jobs while pouring billions into artificial intelligence projects. The broader wave of cuts is now being described by some workers as the “AI job apocalypse.” Meta has become one of the biggest examples of this shift.
The company has already reduced thousands of jobs in recent years. Earlier this year, Meta cut more than 1,000 positions connected to Reality Labs and content moderation teams. These cuts came after the company had already eliminated around 21,000 jobs during its 2022 and 2023 “Year of Efficiency” campaigns. Alongside the new layoffs, Meta is also reportedly scrapping around 6,000 open job positions.
Employees describe emotional and personal cost of surviving inside Silicon Valley
While Meta layoffs continue, the company is sharply increasing spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Last month, Meta increased its 2026 capital expenditure forecast by up to $10 billion, taking the possible total to nearly $145 billion. The company has not publicly commented in detail on whether AI directly influenced the latest job cuts.
The longtime employee said life inside the company has become emotionally draining despite the financial benefits of working in tech. “I feel torn. Working here is not easy,” the employee said. “The pain of working here is not very well understood. It’s this grand calculus of what it costs to live in the Bay Area and what personal sacrifices you are willing to make and what you’re willing to do for money.”
Khalid Qasid is a media enthusiast with a strong interest in documentary filmmaking. He holds a Master’s degree in Convergent Journalism from AJK MCRC. He has also written extensively on esports at Sportsdunia. Currently, he covers world and general news at NewsX Digital.
