Amidst the recent wave of mass layoffs in the tech industry, there are reports of employees at companies like Meta and Salesforce receiving pay without being assigned meaningful work.
Madelyn Machado, a former recruiter at Meta, revealed in a TikTok video that she received a $190,000 salary for doing “nothing” during her six-month tenure with the company. Britney Levy, another former Meta employee, described the company’s hiring practices as similar to “collecting Pokemon cards,” with employees being hoarded without regard for their actual job responsibilities. It is believed that this phenomenon is possibly a result of tech companies over-hiring during the pandemic to keep up with the surging demand for tech-based solutions.
Last November, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced laying off thousands of employees in the first round. Later, he announced a second round of layoffs in March 2023. In total, Meta has eliminated over 20,000 jobs globally, including India. At the time of announcing the layoffs, Zuckerberg took full responsibility for eliminating thousands of jobs. The Meta CEO also accepted that the company overhired during the pandemic to meet growing demand.
Meta has confirmed that the company will compensate all the impacted employees. In the same emails, Zuckerberg promised to provide 16 weeks of base severance pay as well as two additional weeks of pay for every year of service. The tech giant also promised health care assistance for laid off employees as well as for their families, but that will be applicable for six months from termination.
In addition to Meta, tech companies like Google, Amazon, among many others are also laying off thousands of employees. Recently, Amazon announced their second round of layoffs. In fact, reports suggest that Google is also prepping for another round of layoffs, wherein it is likely to cut thousands of more jobs.
While the pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for businesses, the current trend of employees receiving pay without meaningful work has raised concerns about the ethical practices of these tech companies. It remains to be seen how companies will address this issue and provide meaningful work for their employees in the future.
