Nastier Tech Company Layoffs

Just two months into 2025, tech companies appear to be engaging in what has become an annual ritual of targeted layoffs to pare expenses and preserve profits. While the layoffs so far don’t appear to be as widespread as the massive cuts of two years ago, the tone of these job cuts has become decidedly more mean-spirited.

Unlike the past few years when companies admitted overhiring and said the layoffs were intended to “rightsize” the workforce, companies are labeling this round of layoffs as “performance-based” to justify slashing workers they determined to be the lowest-performing.

Most notably, Meta, owners of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, has been front and center of these performance-based layoffs. The company reportedly sent an internal memo to employees stating it would cut 3,600 jobs, or 5% of its workforce. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated bluntly the job cuts would be based on performance, and the company said it would hire new employees to replace those laid off.

But the cutbacks have led some of the laid-off workers to question the performance criteria used to determine who would get axed. Eight terminated employees said they received “at or above expectations” ratings in their 2024 assessments, which represented the middle tier in Meta’s three-level review. But in the year-end review, these employees said their rating was “Meets Most Expectations,” one of the lower tiers in Meta’s year-end review.

To add insult to injury, Meta did not have online or face-to-face meetings with any of the affected employees, instead resorting to an impersonal e-mail.
The laid-off workers were shocked by the turn of events. "When I received the email I was surprised by it mostly because I have a very solid performance history and no indicators in the last six months of performance problems," one affected employee was quoted as saying in the Business Insider report.

Meta showed no sympathy even to those on medical leave. Nicole Schwartz, Research Manager at Meta Reality Labs, said in this Linkedin post:
“I was eating breakfast with my son early Monday morning when I received an email notification from Meta. When I opened it, I read those words:
Unfortunately, due to your performance, your employment is being terminated…based on your 2024 rating (On Leave)." I was eating breakfast with my son early Monday morning when I received an email notification from Meta. When I opened it, I read those words: "Unfortunately, due to your performance, your employment is being terminated…based on your 2024 rating (On Leave)."

Schwartz continued, “At first, I was extremely confused. It felt disorienting. Last year I had to make the difficult decision to go on medical leave. I ended up being out on medical leave for most of the year and had just recently returned to work. I knew my performance rating this cycle would be “On Leave” and also knew that it is against the law to terminate someone because they took medical leave. So, even though I knew that the supposedly “performance-based” layoffs would be happening, I thought I would not be affected. “On Leave,” by definition, is not a performance rating. I thought wrong.”
“I debated initially whether I should write this post. Writing this will not make my severance any different. But I am sure that I’m not the only one who was laid off because they had an “On Leave” performance.”
“Meta didn’t take care of us, so we must take care of each other. So I write this to any of my colleagues who were impacted by these layoffs who had an “On Leave” rating.”
“What happened to us is unfair and unlawful. And you may be reeling for a bit — losing your job on top of recovering from whatever caused you to take leave is going to be a hard pill to swallow.”

Meta’s use of “low performer” to justify its headcount reduction is taking a hit, because the company has resorted to canning higher-performing workers to meet job reduction goals in each departments. Meta is gung-ho about increasing its cadre of machine learning engineers and is using this layoff to make room for them.

Meta is not the only tech company that has cut workers recently. Software giant Microsoft recently initiated performance-related job cuts where the affected employees were immediately terminated, without severance pay. According to a letter sent to impacted employees that Business Insider obtained, "The reason(s) for the termination of your employment including your job performance has not met minimum performance standards and expectations for your position. You are relieved of all job duties effective immediately and your access to Microsoft systems, accounts, and buildings will be removed effective today. You are not to perform any further work on behalf of Microsoft.”

The letter also demanded the immediate return of all company property, including card keys, company cards, and phone cards.

Amazon, which has also implemented substantial workforce reductions over the past few years, made additional cuts in its communications and sustainability units recently. A company spokesperson was quoted as saying, “As we examined our current org design and decided on the shifts outlined above, we identified some roles that were too narrowly scoped or that introduced unnecessary layers, where we couldn’t solve the challenge by flattening the structure or shifting workloads.”