I recently spent a month in Korea + Japan, and returned to the Bay Area a week ago. While in Korea I found out I was one of the 8,000 people laid off at Meta. I had to pretend like I was still employed while staying at my wife’s family’s apartment, and try to remain present while processing everything in my head. Part of the reason I was in Korea was to scout out wedding venues, but I think we may delay that to next year now when my employment situation is more secure.
I wrote some posts on X speaking honestly about the experience (1 2) that racked up 6.5 million views. The job had been nothing like what I’d expected on all fronts, and I thought more people should know the reality that people don’t talk about – especially the ethnic enclaves which was the biggest surprise. Of course it’s taboo and risky to talk about this stuff, which is a large reason why the problem exists in the first place. But I felt it was my moral duty, and I’d been holding this in over the last year and a half. Many people reached out to me in sympathy – colleagues, employees, ex-Meta, tech workers at other companies, founders, journalists. Many had experienced the same firsthand, or knew others who’d experienced the same.
Although there were things I really liked about the culture, there were also serious flaws. I think stack ranking is the #1 root of all the problems, and it’s clear that leadership believes the pros outweigh the cons. It’s clear that ethnic enclaves are a serious problem and disadvantage minorities, but westerners are either unaware (since they’re not getting those jobs in the first place) or too afraid to talk about it for fear of being dismissed as a racist. Between all the PSC (the performance review system) box-ticking, promo-driven culture, Google Docs, (AI slop) Workplace posts, AI token burning leaderboards, and “boba happy hours” where everyone would just grab their bobas and leave while the organizer could claim this as community building under their “People axis” – I sometimes felt like people had lost the plot.
I have a lot more I want to say, but I don’t think the risk/reward is there right now. When I’m financially independent and all my colleagues have moved on, I’ll probably write a book about it (if I disappear before then, well you know why).
On a personal note regarding the layoff – I’m grateful to all the fantastic people I had the pleasure of working with, and to everyone who reached out with kind words after the news. It all means more than you know. What’s funny is that while working at a company, you know exactly who’s the kind of person who’d reach out if god forbid you were laid off, and who wouldn’t even so much as send a LinkedIn connection request. I always strive to work for the former.
Note: Just to be clear – I’m not claiming that I was only targeted only because I was part of the minority. I’m saying that what I experienced over the almost 2 years was that minorities would be clearly disadvantaged and disproportionately targeted in layoffs (eg. 6/7 layoffs I observed). The entire leadership chain in my org up to the VP2 level was dominated by one ethnicity, who primarily spoke their language at the office. Over the 2 years I worked in this org, the dominant ethnicity only became more dominant. At 90% dominance, the workplace culture more resembled that of their country, which is very different from U.S work culture, and was a challenge for me to navigate. Nothing I say is actually new information, anyone can go on Blind and see the numerous accounts of others in these orgs (eg. ads, MRS) with similar experiences. Despite all this, most of the colleagues I worked with were fantastic, and I hope that people won’t misconstrue this experience to advocate for extreme policies like cutting all immigration.
How it feels getting laid off
Even though the layoff wasn’t totally out of nowhere given it was announced well in advance that there’d be a big layoff on 5/20, and even though I’d felt for some time that there were other companies where I’d probably be happier, it’s still not pleasant. It doesn’t feel good knowing that nothing you did this year made any difference (arguably even H2 last year for me as well). Although I’d never wish anyone who’s not malevolent to lose their job, it’s not pleasant knowing you were picked, while others who seemed to have the moral compass of a scam artist weren’t.
When Reuters first leaked about Meta layoffs in March, I knew that I’d be a target because of my previous year – particularly H1 last year which was maybe the toughest of my career where I had to navigate a poor manager, TL, and team fit while my father was passing away from cancer (he left this world on 5/23/25, rest in peace). I worked extra hard in H2 to compensate, thinking that if I at least blew the team out of the park on every objective vanity metric (diffs, engineering time saved, etc), that would at least protect me from the chopping block, but it made no difference.
I feel worse for my loved ones who depend on and/or worry about me. My wife was convinced that I’d be safe because she knew how hard I’d worked and believed in me so much. She brought up that I should’ve shared my feedback in advance with that one TL. Context is I had this one notoriously strict TL, and the PSC (performance review process) required submitting our feedback of each other. TL feedback is weighted heavily, and one critical comment can bring down your rating. I felt like they might expect me to write critical feedback of them, when in reality despite any differences we may have had – I only ever submitted positive feedback because I know that the PSC process screws people over who receive critical feedback (one of the many flaws with the PSC system). I could’ve shared them my feedback in advance to make it crystal clear that I appreciate them and only mean well – and my wife insisted I should do so, but a part of me wanted to see what they would honestly do, and to what extent I could trust them. They hid their feedback, and that’s when I knew I was screwed.
I’ll never forget the expressionless face of my manager entering the PSC meeting. I was smiling because I genuinely thought I’d be fine. I’d shipped the most revenue in H1 (before switching gears to infra work), and led the team on every productivity metric possible. Yes I’d made some mistakes (eg. removing a config that I’d thought wasn’t needed anymore, which I normally would’ve double-checked but that TL was on paternity leave and I thought I needed to be more proactive), but I was also ramping up to a new team and new tech stack, and I’d taken every precaution to ensure any mistakes couldn’t happen again.
I was finally able to formally switch teams in March, but it was too little too late. Ever since the Reuters leaks about Meta layoffs in March, it was difficult to remain motivated. I trudged through, knowing likely none of it would matter. 5/20 confirmed that. Funny, a few days before that, I was dragged into helping unblock this other launch that some others were desperately trying to rush out for the Friday before the week of 5/20. I was thinking you’ve got to be kidding me. It was obvious they wouldn’t be able to launch on Friday (even with a fully validated launch candidate it’s generally not advised to launch on Fridays, let alone one with a bunch of last second changes), yet they had to do this performative death march to look like they’d done everything they could to try to launch on Friday, days before a mass layoff. These were my last days at work.
My main concern losing my job thankfully isn’t the lost income. Of course I miss the income (my wife doesn’t work so we have no income now), but I’ve thankfully got a comfortable amount of savings. My main worry is losing my “edge”. When you have a job, you’re forced to wake up at a reasonable time, shower, commute into an office, work, do things you don’t want to do, and be evaluated on your work – including being called out on any bullshit. You’re held accountable, and pushed to get better. You get regular social interaction, like lunch with coworkers and running into coworkers/friends on microkitchen walks.
When you’re unemployed, you’re only accountable to yourself. There’s no external pressure or feedback mechanism keeping you in line. My fear is that without this external pressure, I could slip into laziness or otherwise regress without realizing it. I’m hoping to find another job within the next month or two. Of course I’ll still remain selective because I don’t want to be thrust into this kind of situation again (though in this day and age with nonstop layoffs, maybe that’s unavoidable). I’m not sure if I’ll be able to land the same compensation – which honestly is quite absurd in Big Tech – but maybe money isn’t everything?
Everybody I know in the Bay Area works for Meta
One of my problems living in the Bay Area peninsula was that almost every single person I know works for Meta, or is married to someone who works for Meta. I’d play soccer twice per week…at Meta with other Meta people. I went to a tech meetup once, and everybody I stayed in touch with also happened to work at Meta. Back when Meta had their rideshare program (Dynamic rideshare), I’d meet other Meta people through that. I wanted to meet people outside of Meta, but didn’t know how. I’d tell people that I felt like I was in a cult.
Now I don’t work for Meta anymore. But all of my friends here also work for Meta (except for those who were also laid off).
I’m not sure how people meet other people here in the Bay Area peninsula. I’m sure it’d be much easier living in the city. It’s kind of weird now.
Now that I have nothing to do here, it’s more clear how little there is to do. Respect to my wife for surviving here (especially before she got her driver’s license), it is pretty boring here – especially if you’re used to big city living.
I was really struggling because I hate being in my apartment all day and was used to going to the office 4-5 days/week. All the coffee shops and “third spaces” close by 9pm here, and 5-6pm on weekends.
I realized the only “nice” places here where I can stay late are the lobbies of 4 or 5 star hotels. I just got kicked out of one, so now I write this from the common area of my apartment complex.
What’s next
My focus now is on interviewing, including all the bullshit prep this industry forces on us like Leetcoding, which is even more ludicrous now that AI does the coding for us. I’ve done over 500 questions now – what a waste of time. The collective effort software engineers devote to Leetcoding could probably cure cancer.
Regardless of what happened, I’m truly grateful for the experience, and all the fantastic people I had the privilege of meeting. I’m excited for what’s next. I think in the future I’ll look back at this moment and be glad it happened.
In the next post, I’ll give me thoughts and reflections from my Japan + Korea trip (some of those posts already got some attention, like on work cafes and this other post). Now that I’ve got more followers on X, I’ll probably be posting there more. I’ll still try to keep posting here though.
Japan is playing Brazil tomorrow in the World Cup. Go Japan!
J. Savage 