Meta recently fired some employees it deemed ineffective, with Business Insider reporting that around 3,600 people were asked to leave.
Among them was a senior machine learning engineer, who said she was solicited for rehiring just three days after being fired.
This comes in the wake of Meta's February layoffs, which affected around 5 per cent of its global staff.
Mark Zuckerberg, the company's CEO, described the decision as part of an effort to "raise the bar on performance." While the corporation insisted on performance-based cuts, many affected employees have questioned the process's fairness and transparency.
The former engineer stated that she joined Meta in early 2024 and obtained a midyear performance assessment rating of "At or Above Expectations."
By January 2025, her year-end review had rated her as "Meets All Expectations," but this was later altered to "Meets Most Expectations" after a second round of director evaluations, India Today reports.
According to the report, she believes the modification was motivated by internal pressure to reach layoff targets rather than merit. She had also been authorised for a transfer to a more competitive squad, but she was told that the move would have an impact on her rating. She decided to wait, but was laid off before the transfer was completed.
In an unexpected twist, only three days after her layoff, she received an email from a Meta recruiter inviting her back, without even going through the interview process. The appeal, which came from the same email address and person, made the situation seem strange, she explained.
Despite the invitation, the former employee has declined to return to the organisation, expressing confidence in her abilities to find a new job.
According to the report, several additional former employees have raised concerns about how the judgements were made, particularly in cases involving individuals on leave, in the middle of team moves, or who have yet to receive formal assessments.
