Mary Prescott, a software engineering leadership recruiter at Meta, expressed her disappointment and frustration after being laid off from the company.
She worked there for 10 months before receiving an automated email informing her that she was being let go amid the company’s hiring freeze.
She was part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest round of layoffs, which is shrinking the company’s workforce by another 13 percent.
Prescott said that ever since the first set of redundancies were announced, she’d felt “survivor’s guilt” and was worried about when her time would come.
Recruiters at Meta earn approximately $123,400, according to Indeed.
However, this figure can be significantly higher, depending on experience.
Prescott revealed that morale at work was low because people did not want to dedicate themselves to long-term projects over fears they’d be let go next.
She said she knew layoffs were coming after Zuckerberg announced that 2023 would be the “year of efficiency.”
But the shocking part was how “cold and corporate” the company was during the process.
Despite leaks in the press about who’d be impacted by the redundancies, the worker said she was “disappointed and frustrated” that Meta leadership did not address questions until Zuckerberg’s final announcement.
She also mentioned that her team of Meta recruiters even met pre-emptively to say their goodbyes once they assumed they’d be next to be laid off.
Prescott said she received an impersonal and automated email informing her of her layoff. She would have appreciated a personal message from her manager, but that did not happen.
She admitted that her manager wasn’t given any information about the layoffs either and that he also got laid off that day.
As for her post-Meta life, the recruiter said she’s apprehensive to apply in the current job market but is “trying to play it smart, save money, be frugal, and apply for unemployment in the meantime just in case.”
She also mentioned that the finality of the layoff is sad and disappointing, and she’s pretty bummed with how it ended and how leadership communicated the layoffs to them.
Following her layoff, Prescott posted on LinkedIn, requesting support in finding a new role. On Tuesday, it was announced that in the US, Meta recruiting teams will be the first to have jobs cut.
Impacted tech teams will lose positions at the end of April, and business branches will see jobs cut in May.
Zuckerberg confirmed international layoffs would also occur, but will take longer.
Overall, the company expects to reduce its team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that it hasn’t yet hired.
»Meta Layoffs Leave Recruiters in Limbo as Company Shrinks Workforce«