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Disgruntled and vocal: Zuckerberg follows DOGE, 3,600 ‘low performing’ Meta workers get the axe

February 12, 2025 | | Print Article

Anger is brewing after, following in the steps of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the layoffs Monday of 3,600 “low performing” employees.

News that Zuckerberg would be laying off roughly five percent of his employees first came in an internal memo he published last month.

“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster,” he wrote. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

But when the ax came Monday, it came as a surprise to many now-disgruntled former Meta employees like Kaila Curry, who subsequently posted a screed to LinkedIn complaining about her termination.

“This wasn’t about performance; it was about workforce reduction in favor of AI initiatives,” she bitterly claimed in her post.

She went on to allege that her performance at Meta had been exemplary.

“I managed weekend content operations, received an ‘exceeds expectations’ rating in my mid-year review, and navigated a whirlwind of five managers and two reorgs in just one year,” she wrote.

“I frequently asked for feedback and was always told I was doing a good job. I was never placed on a PIP, never given corrective feedback, and never properly mentored or provided clear expectations. I simply put in the work—often on weekends—while being isolated in an empty office,” she added.

Curry also took a sarcastic stab at Zuckerberg over his recent “masculinity” comments.

“Perhaps I became too vocal when our shift to young adult (YA) content involved removing safeguards that protected LGBTQ+ users,” she wrote. “I spoke up because I didn’t want to contribute to a platform that could increase suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth. Maybe I ‘lacked masculine energy’ (to quote Mark Zuckerberg himself). Who knows?”

In an interview last month with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg raised concerns about “culturally neutered” companies that have distanced themselves from “masculine energy.”

Listen:

“Masculine energy I think is good, and obviously society has plenty of that, but I think that corporate culture was really trying to get away from it,” he said. “I do think the corporate culture sort of had swung toward being this somewhat more neutered thing.”

Steven S., another laid-off Meta employee, also took to LinkedIn to complain about his termination. Like Curry, he claimed he wasn’t a low-performing employee.

“I was let go today—but not because I was a ‘Low Performer,'” he wrote. “If you’ve seen the headlines, you’ve probably also seen how leadership is framing this: a move to ‘raise the bar’ by cutting so-called ‘low performers.’ Let’s be clear: that label is misleading, and for many of us, it’s flat-out wrong.”

“I worked hard this past year. I contributed, collaborated, and did my best to push my team and our work forward. And yet, like thousands of others, I was swept up in a process that had more to do with hitting numbers than fairly evaluating individual performance,” he added.

He went on to claim that the layoffs had nothing to do with performance.

“Layoffs like this aren’t about who deserves to stay—they’re about business decisions made at a high level, often with little regard for the talent being lost,” he wrote. “Not to mention, the overall physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of the humans impacted by these decisions.”

“So, to everyone affected today: that ‘low performer’ label does not define you. Your skills, work ethic, and potential are still intact. This is a setback, but it’s not the end of your story,” he added.

All this comes amid Zuckerberg’s transformation to a based, red-pilled, Trump-friendly businessman.

Vivek Saxena
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