'It has been grueling': This ex-Meta employee's story on being laid off twice will break your heart

An ex-Meta employee shared her story of being laid off by the technology conglomerate twice, talking about the pressures employees face. The employee, Andrea Guzmán García-Luna, was laid off in 2018 and again in the latest round of layoffs happening at present.

The heartbroken employee narrated her tale in a post on LinkedIn a week after her layoff. She revealed that with layoffs left and right, she too had braced herself for the reality. Negative news surrounding her company added more to her anxiety. But despite knowing it was coming, she was still struck hard by the news. The employee confessed to having cried for two hours after learning of her layoff. 

“And it wasn’t for lack of trying. I built scenarios and budgets, put plans on hold, relied on therapy and tried to work and deliver as best as I could. But when the day came I still cried for two hours straight,” she wrote.

García-Luna revealed the toll that the experience had taken on her. She brought up the near-perpetual fear her coworkers lived in, fear of the impending layoffs.

“Over the past months I’ve seen people cry on Zoom calls more than I have in my 8-year career, joined chats where people shared their fears about the possible scenarios of the layoffs and googled ‘Meta Layoffs’ frantically to get some sense of control over the situation,” she said. 

“It has been grueling,” she added. 

The ex-Meta employee brought up the pressures the employees faced in the company. She expressed contempt at how financial stability could exist at one moment and be taken away at another with the layoffs. 

“All this to say I realized a lot of things about Mental Health in the corporate world. The constant pressure to perform and competition vs the realization that one’s financial stability can be taken away at any moment by any reason. I know it’s what we sign up for but, is it okay?” she said.

García-Luna did not let the negativity cloud the positives she experienced. She vouched for her coworkers, even appealing to recruiters to hire them. Despite having no job, she stated that she was grateful for the break after 8 years of work, expressing excitement at the prospects the future held for her. 

“As for what’s next… after 8 years of nonstop work it will be interesting to have time to rest for a little while. To rebuild and gain confidence. To find new paths. I’m excited for this privilege and to keep building and questioning things,” she said.