Times are grim in big tech. Projects have been stalled, things are in stasis, and the mood is foul. “It’s awful,” says one worker in London’s Meta offices, who wishes to remain anonymous. “People want to be here because they need the work, but they also don’t want to be here because their colleagues have disappeared — and they know they could be next.” Another says their bosses have been given a number of staff to slash from each team, and workers are trying desperately to one-up each other to save their own skins.
“It’s become cut-throat,” says the Meta worker. “You’re seeing the worst in people.” The reason? Meta’s mass lay-offs, which began late last year, are set to continue. More cuts are expected later this month, with staff undergoing performance reviews to see who should stay. It’s part of what Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told analysts last month was a “flattening [of] our org structure and removing some layers in middle management to make decisions faster” — business jargon for job cuts.
