--- title: "Mark Zuckerberg Has Been Playing a Cruel Game With Meta Employees" description: "For nearly a month, Meta staffers have worried after it was announcemed that 1-in-10 employees will be laid off on May 20." date: "2026-05-19" modified: "2026-05-19" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/mark-zuckerberg-cruel-game-meta-employees" categories: - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" --- # Mark Zuckerberg Has Been Playing a Cruel Game With Meta Employees ![A close-up portrait of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, smiling. The image has a red light effect focused around his eyes, giving them a glowing appearance. The background is a solid warm brown color.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards* For the past several weeks, thousands of workers at Mark Zuckerberg's Meta have sat in employment purgatory as they wait to hear whether they'll be part of a massive wave of layoffs. Announced 26 days ago on April 23rd via an internal memo, Meta said it was slashing about 10 percent of the company's 78,000 employees, and closing around 6,000 open job postings, [*Business Insider* reported](). The hammer will finally drop on Wednesday — and with a one-in-ten chance at joining the unemployment line, workers are understandably anxious as they've waited for their company to pull the trigger in a cruel game of Russian roulette that's dragged on for close to a month. "It's a bit surreal that 1 out of 10 people are about to be hit, and no one knows how the lists are being made," one Meta employee told *BI*. "It feels like people are just in a holding pattern waiting for Wednesday." On TeamBlind, a message board for verified employees of high-profile tech companies like Meta, the discussion was endless as workers of all experience levels grasped at straws for any crumb of info to ease their minds. "Blind Meta feels completely chaotic right now," one anonymous Meta staffer wrote on Monday. "It's just full of people trying to figure out if layoffs are based on PSCs \[biannual performance reviews\], tenure, org, manager span, level, politics, or some LOGICAL spreadsheet filter. Some people think being newer is dangerous. Other people think being too long at the same level is dangerous. Nobody even agrees on what safe means." A day out from the layoffs, the nervous spectacle had become so great that employees from other firms tried to grab a little grist from the rumor mill. "What're the details on the upcoming Meta layoff? Seeing crazy amount of Blind posts on it," one Google worker asked. "What is this morbid curiosity about other companies' layoffs?" a Meta worker shot back. "This is a disgusting post, mind your own business, unless you're willing to financially support the laid off metamates." (To the Google staffer's credit, they did offer to "help refer laid off folks from Meta" in a reply.) "I know this leaves everyone with nearly a month of ambiguity, which is incredibly unsettling," Janelle Gale, Meta's chief people officer said in the April letter to employees. The coming layoffs are just the latest so far in 2026. In January, Meta laid off around [1,500 virtual reality workers]() as it mothballed Zuckerberg's failed Reality Labs division. Even for those who do survive the May 20 gauntlet, the future could be rocky, as [*Reuters* reported]() additional bloodletting slated for later this year. Facing one of the [worst job markets for tech workers]() in decades, it remains to be seen how many of these Meta staffers are able to maintain their career trajectory in the highly-skilled and highly-competitive world of big tech. Perhaps one lucky staffer could consider a career shift: [*Wired* reported]() today that Zuckerberg is hiring a private lifeguard for his Hawaiian island compound. **More on Meta:** *[Meta Workers Say They're Seeing Disturbing Things Through Users' Smart Glasses]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()