Meta lays off 8,000 employees in a single day, sends termination emails at 4 a.m., and monitors remaining staff for AI training.

According to Beating Monitor, Meta laid off 8,000 employees on May 20, 2026. Multiple employees reported that termination emails were sent en masse at 4 a.m. that day, following a prior directive for all staff to work remotely. The layoff list included high-performing IC4 engineers with no PIP records—some sleeping less than four hours per night and frequently submitting code at 3 a.m. Computers of retained employees have been equipped with monitoring software. Internal employee Marco revealed that the company is tracking the operational patterns of remaining staff to train AI, with the goal of using these AI systems to further replace existing roles. Meta is currently experiencing record-breaking profits. Former employee Jeremy Bernier confirmed that internal stack ranking continues to be enforced, and many mid- and junior-level engineers burdened by mortgages, along with H-1B visa holders, are being directly sacrificed to boost stock prices after relentless overtime.