A Meta employee who survived the company's recent mass layoffs has sparked widespread conversation about survivor's guilt after posting an emotional message on the anonymous workplace forum Teamblind, expressing remorse over keeping their job while hard-working colleagues were let go.
"Please don't think people laid off from Meta are bad performers. I'm an average-performing scrub, and I feel so bad for surviving when my teammate got laid off," the employee wrote in a post titled 'I feel bad for surviving'. The message challenges the common narrative that layoffs target poor performers, highlighting the arbitrary nature of corporate restructuring decisions.
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The employee described their laid-off teammate as "super humble and reliable", someone who had recently worked on a critical project with an extremely tight deadline. "She gave it her all and was sleeping less than 4 hours almost 80% of the time throughout several months. I think she fell sick many times due to overwork, and now she suddenly got cut," the anonymous employee wrote.
Despite having a strong track record, working on important projects, reaching IC4 level (mid-to-senior engineer), and having no performance warnings, the employee was abruptly laid off, the post said. "I seriously don't know why they chose her out of all people when she had a great track record and worked on important projects and IC4, no red or yellow zone. Very well-mannered and behaved too," the post stated.
The employee recalled witnessing their teammate's extreme dedication during the months leading up to the layoff. "I remember the past few months I saw her publishing commits at 3am, then at 6am. Like, when did you even sleep wtf?" they wrote, expressing disbelief at the timing of the dismissal.
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The post concluded with an appeal for empathy: "Please be kind to everyone and don't generalise the people who got cut." The viral post has resonated with thousands of tech workers navigating similar situations, highlighting the human cost of corporate restructuring beyond the headlines.
Meta announced the layoffs as part of a restructuring effort aimed at improving efficiency and reducing costs while continuing heavy investments in artificial intelligence, with engineering and product teams bearing the brunt of the job cuts.
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