Meta has initiated a fresh round of layoffs, targeting 5% of its global workforce, impacting approximately 3,600 employees across the United States (US), Europe, and Asia.

While the tech giant attributes the job cuts to performance issues, affected employees are contesting this claim, arguing that their dismissals were not merit-based, according to a report by Business Standard.

Among those laid off is Elana Reman Safner, a former Product Counsel for MetaWorks, who had worked at the company for over three years. 

In a LinkedIn post, she strongly refuted Meta’s reasoning, alleging that employees with a recent history of taking leave were disproportionately affected.

"I was blindsided"

Safner shared that she was dismissed just weeks after returning from a six-month maternity leave despite consistently meeting performance expectations. She claimed she was never given a negative review throughout her tenure at Meta, making the decision unexpected.

"Meta laid me off yesterday in its ‘performance-based’ layoffs, and I was blindsided," she wrote.

"I have never received a review below ‘Meets All’ in my 3+ years at Meta, and I was on maternity leave until November. It’s hard to believe that—despite Meta indicating my expectations were prorated—I did not do enough. Many laid off today have similar stories—a history of good performance and a recent leave of absence,” she added.

Despite her criticism, Safner also expressed gratitude for her colleagues, calling her team at Reality Labs Legal a "family."

Criticism of Meta and Zuckerberg

However, she did not hold back from taking jabs at Meta, particularly CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Safner criticised his decision-making approach, alleging that "beloved products" were scrapped for not being "moonshot" enough.

“Here’s what I won’t miss: my career trajectory being at the whim of product decisions I have no control over, mental overload, 34-page one-pagers, having 62 tabs open, deprecating beloved products because they weren’t ‘moonshot’ enough for Zuck, Zuck’s newfound ‘masculine energy,’ and being its collateral damage,” she wrote.

Zuckerberg recently stirred controversy after stating in a podcast with Joe Rogan that American companies had become “neutered” and needed to regain their “masculine energy.”

The latest layoffs come after Meta ended its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programme, a move that coincided with the election of Donald Trump as the US President.