Meta is preparing for its first major round of layoffs this year: On Wednesday, the company is expected to cut about 8,000 jobs as part of a broader downsizing plan aimed at eliminating 22,000 positions by the end of the year.
Inside the company, the layoffs have been given an internal codename: “Pralaydin,” meaning “day of catastrophe” in Hindi. It marks Meta’s largest workforce reduction since early 2023, when the company cut about 21,000 jobs during what it called its “year of efficiency.”
Fear grips the office
The atmosphere inside Meta’s offices in recent weeks has been described as bleak. Employees worried about their future have begun taking home snacks, drinks and phone chargers that had been freely available at the office, preparing for the possibility that they may no longer have access to the building after Wednesday. Others are trying to prove their value by increasing their use of the company’s internal artificial intelligence tools, believing strong performance ratings could protect them, even though the human resources department has assured employees that AI usage will not factor into layoff decisions.
Some workers have disabled meeting transcription systems so they can discuss the expected cuts privately without conversations being automatically recorded.
'Golden parachute': Generous severance amid a difficult job market
The layoff process itself is described as swift and harsh: Employees are expected to receive an email at 7 a.m., at which point their work accounts, including email, computers and internal systems, will be immediately locked.
Meta plans to offer laid-off U.S. employees a severance package that includes 16 weeks of base pay, plus an additional two weeks for every year of service, along with 18 months of health insurance coverage. The “golden parachute” is estimated at about $360,000 per employee.
Despite the relatively generous terms, even workers who were laid off previously are struggling to find new jobs. Experienced software engineers report sending hundreds of applications without receiving responses, despite having Meta listed on their resumes.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the rationale behind the cuts to employees, saying: “We are streamlining our teams so that our workforce is no larger than necessary.” He added that the field of artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly and that management is doing its best under the current circumstances.