Paid employees to do 'fake work': Laid off Facebook worker accuses Meta of not having enough work for staff

Facebook's parent Meta has been hit with accusations from a former employee alleging that she was paid to do 'fake work.' Britney Levy, who was laid off in the company's first round of layoffs, stated that she was hired into a position where she was put into a group of individuals who were not working and that she had to fight to find work.

In a video on TikTok (via Business Insider),  she said that Meta was "hoarding us like Pokémon cards" and that many employees felt they were being set up to be laid off. Levy's comments come amid Meta's second round of layoffs affecting 10,000 jobs. This comes months after the company laid off 13 per cent of its workforce last year. After both rounds, Meta has effectively removed 21,000 employees from its workforce and has even removed 5,000 job openings. 

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously emphasized the company's plans to make 2023 the "year of efficiency," which means slashing head count. However, some former employees are claiming that they were paid to do little-to-no work, which had left them frustrated and without valuable experience to add to their resumes.

Also read: 'This will be tough': Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains layoff timeline for 10,000 job cuts

Former employees like Britney Levy are speaking out about their experiences at the company. Levy said that she faced several roadblocks in her work, including struggling to get permission from higher-ups to contact job candidates, and that she felt there were few people at Meta who were happy in that situation.

While being paid to do little-to-no work might sound appealing, Levy said that it gets her nowhere and that it was only an educational opportunity for her.

Meta's latest round of layoffs was announced by Mark Zuckerberg and he offered a timeline for the new round of layoffs. He claimed that the restructuring might even stretch till the end of this year.

Also read: Meta fires 10,000 employees: Read Mark Zuckerberg's letter to his employees