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As dead employees They are preparing to lay off workers next Wednesday, May 20, many say Oscillations It is horribly and historically low. “Everyone is unhappy; the only people who aren’t unhappy are, quite literally, CEOs,” says one Instagram employee.
the Social media The corporate giant plans to cut about 10% of its workforce, or nearly 8,000 people, to “run the company more efficiently” and “offset other investments” it is making, According to the HR leader. But the layoffs, which will add up to nearly 25,000 cuts dead Which was announced over the past four years, is not the only reason for the deterioration of morale.
Wide pay gaps among employees, the company’s courtroom losses, and mandatory role changes for hundreds of senior engineers have also contributed to what employees see as… A uniquely gloomy atmosphere Inside dead. Another issue is the recent installation of company software on employees’ computers to track their activity solely in the name of AI training, according to 16 current and former employees from a variety of roles who spoke with WIRED. They declined to reveal their names due to company policies prohibiting unauthorized conversations with journalists.
“I don’t know anyone who’s having a good time,” says one policy staffer. “It’s a bit over the top — the lack of mission communication, the upcoming layoffs, and the use of American employees to train the AI models that will replace them.”
Many people say that anyone who can afford to leave hopes to be laid off and get at least 16 weeks of severance pay and 18 months of paid health care that comes with it. As the Instagram employee put it: “Everyone’s like, ‘Do it now, Jesus Christ.’ Only the best-paid individuals involved in core AI development seem to be thriving, says a senior leader at Meta.
In the UK, some workers have become so frustrated that they are signing signatures to form a trade union. “Our leadership is escalating its callous and short-sighted behavior,” regulators within the company wrote. Pitch for colleagues. “We need to create an incentive for them to treat us with basic humanity.”
United Tech & Allied Workers, which describes itself as the UK’s largest union for technology workers, He said last week Which Meta employees wanted to organize with the group to protect their jobs, benefits and privacy. Earlier this month, British employees at Google DeepMind Vote for the union With the labor group’s parent organization, the Communications Workers Union, over concerns about the sale of artificial intelligence to the US military.
Pockets of employee protests have become a constant and defining feature of the largest technology companies, incl dead, Amazonand Google. But the latest concerns at Meta appear to be more widespread, to the point where they appear to be hampering the company’s hiring efforts, one employee claims (Meta rejects this assertion). “There is a lot of anger and fear,” adds one legal employee. “It’s frustrating to watch because it seems completely unnecessary” — especially given how well Meta’s advertising business continues to perform.
Meta has largely declined to comment on the specifics of this story, but pointed to previous public statements defending job cuts and new projects related to artificial intelligence, including tracking software. “There are safeguards in place to protect sensitive content, and the data is not used for any other purpose,” says Tracy Clayton, a Meta spokesperson.
Complaints escalate
Some employee complaints come down to money. In February, for the second year in a row, Meta reduced the portion of annual raises paid in company stock, reducing it by 5 percent on top of last year’s 10 percent. Median total compensation at Meta fell to $388,200 last year from $417,400 in 2024, according to Public. filingsAlthough Meta’s Clayton said salaries are still trending higher than they were in 2022. Wages have been further dampened by Meta’s stock falling about 5 percent this year as the company shifts focus from struggling virtual reality projects to more expensive AI development. “For many employees, the pay is half the stock, and that sucks,” the Instagram employee says.
The compensation and job cuts came amid consecutive strong earnings for Meta, amounting to nearly $27 billion in the first three months of this year. Last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered to pay salaries to several top AI researchers Up to $100 million annuallyor what one former executive calls “insane amounts of money compared to what anyone at that company was ever making.”