Meta employee loses job while on maternity leave, asks if Mark Zuckerberg has taken a pay cut

Meta (earlier known as Facebook) announced its decision to let go of another 10,000 people recently and LinkedIn is full of stories of people who have been impacted by the second round of layoffs in the company.

Prior to this, Meta had fired 11,000 people in November 2022. The fresh round of layoffs at the company had been anticipated for some time and several reports had claimed that it would happen eventually. Reports of Mark Zuckerberg, during an internal meeting, declaring 2023 as the ‘year of efficiency’ had also surfaced. In the same meeting, he had said that he plans to chop off some middle layers of management in order to make the decision-making process at the company faster.

A woman, who was impacted by the new round of layoffs, also shared her story on LinkedIn. She revealed that she has been fired by the company while being on her maternity leave. She also said that it is beyond her understanding how the Meta leadership team ‘miscalculated so badly that they had to layoff thousands of employees’. She concluded the post by writing, ‘Has Mark Zuckerberg taken a pay cut?’

“I was part of today’s #metalayoffs while on maternity leave. I understand changes in market trends and focus on the business’s bottom line. I don’t understand how #metaleadership miscalculated so badly that they had to lay off thousands of employees, and yet still want to claim that they care about the people who work for them. Has Mark Zuckerberg taken a pay cut?

“My recruiting team was top-notch, and I loved the teams we supported, but #meta’s handling of this situation is appalling,” the post reads.

Around four months ago, Andi had shared her relief on getting to know that her role had not been impacted by the Meta layoffs back then. She had said that she was about three weeks away from having her baby and that she also loves working at the company.

“Thank you to everyone who has checked in on me regarding the #metalayoffs. I found out this morning that my role was not impacted. I’m tremendously relieved to still have my job because I’m about 3 weeks away from having a baby, but also because I genuinely love working at #Meta. I like my team, my managers, and the smart and interesting people we recruit for in IDC. My heart is broken for my friends and colleagues who were impacted. Please let me know if I can introduce you to any of my connections who may be helpful in landing your next role. No matter what, know that you’re still respected and supported,” her post had read back then.

Meta had announced the decision of the second round of layoffs in a blog post and the company had also aplogised for the same.

“Over the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates. With less hiring, I’ve made the difficult decision to further reduce the size of our recruiting team. We will let recruiting team members know tomorrow whether they’re impacted,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an e-mail sent out to the employees who had been laid off.