Workers at Meta were reportedly told to stay home on Wednesday as the tech giant prepared to slash roughly 10% of its global workforce in one of the company’s largest rounds of layoffs in years.
According to the New York Post, an internal document obtained by Reuters states employees across North America were instructed to work remotely while the company carried out the sweeping cuts.
The layoffs are expected to unfold in three separate waves, with affected employees learning their fate through emails sent at 4 a.m. local time in each region.
The restructuring impacts the company behind Facebook and Instagram and is expected to eliminate thousands of jobs as CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues reshaping the company around artificial intelligence.
Meta’s head of human resources, Janelle Gale, reportedly told staff that executives would simultaneously unveil major organizational changes.
About 7,000 employees are expected to be reassigned into new positions as part of the overhaul.
“As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures,” Gale reportedly wrote in the internal communication.
“We’re now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership.”
“We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding,” she added.
The company is reportedly cutting management positions while leaning more heavily on AI systems to streamline operations and reduce staffing needs.
One employee told the San Francisco Standard that tension inside the company had reached a breaking point ahead of the layoffs.
“I am generally dissatisfied with leadership and angry,” the unnamed employee said. “This is as anxious and stressed as I have ever been at a job.”
Meta began the year with nearly 79,000 employees worldwide, making the planned cuts one of the most significant workforce reductions in the company’s history.
The social media giant previously announced severance packages for affected employees that include at least 16 weeks of base pay, plus an additional two weeks for every year worked at the company.
Laid-off workers are also expected to receive healthcare coverage and career support assistance.
In a memo circulated last month, Gale said the company was focused on operating “more efficiently” as it pours enormous amounts of money into AI development.
Meta reportedly expects capital expenditures to reach as much as $145 billion this year alone, fueled largely by construction of new AI data centers and rising memory costs.
The latest cuts may not be the last.
The company is expected to conduct additional layoffs later this year, though executives have not finalized the size or timing of future reductions.
Zuckerberg has aggressively trimmed Meta’s workforce before.
The company eliminated more than 20,000 positions across 2022 and 2023 during what executives labeled a “year of efficiency.”
The layoffs also reflect a broader trend sweeping through the tech industry as companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence.
According to executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, tech layoffs surged 40% during the first three months of 2026 compared to the same period last year.
In March alone, AI-related restructuring reportedly accounted for roughly one-quarter of all tech-sector layoffs.
