Meta told employees to WFH, then laid off 8,000 with 4 am emails: Internet talks about ‘corporate compassion’

They didn’t organise town halls. No warnings were sent. Even the gossipmongers didn’t see it coming. The company didn’t wait for dawn to break. Meta Platforms has kicked off layoffs that will impact about 8,000 employees, nearly 10% of the workforce, across its global offices.Workers in Singapore received their termination reports as early as 4 am local time on Wednesday, according to a Bloomberg report. Employees in Europe and the US are also expected to receive messages in their respective time zones.Interestingly, ahead of the 20 May layoffs, employees were asked to work from home!The internet, predictably, had thoughts — and not the kind Meta’s PR team was hoping for.An X user woke up to the news of the layoffs and decided to document the absolute carnage:“Every day I wake up to a new layoff wave.meta: 8kamazon: 16koracle: up to 30kups: 30kcisco: 4klinkedin: 875atlassian: 1.6k300k+ jobs already gone in 2026.”Another called the strategy purely ‘toxic’. “The environment Meta created with this layoff is toxic.” And the netizen may not be wrong. Meta didn’t just fire 8,000 people; it sent a chilling message to those still employed there: ‘You could be next. At 4 am. Without warning.’Some netizens also discussed how tech companies are ending people’s careers at the most inhumane hour. “6 am Oracle layoff. 4 am Meta layoffs,” another wrote.Another remarked, “Meta Singapore, which was an oasis for returnee kids, is finally facing layoffs, huh~. I have acquaintances working there, but moving to Google seems tough right now too....”A third called out the ‘corporate compassion’ with sarcasm — dripping, caustic, and absolutely warranted: “Meta sending layoff notices at 4 am really adds that extra touch of corporate compassion.”Another X user referred to the allegedly leaked audio from Mark Zuckerberg, which claims that the tech company tracked ‘really smart’ staff to train AI before the layoffs.“Intelligent managersHire intelligent workersTo train intelligent systemsIntelligent systems will replaceIntelligent workers. Cycle of life in new AI era!!!”One X user who had earlier been laid off from his job offered some words of wisdom. “If you’re at Meta rn and waiting for that 4 am layoff email, my thoughts are with you. Don’t worry. I’ve been there too, and quitting these soulless corpos can lead to finally taking a step towards building something yourself. Take a deep breath; it’ll only get better from here. To new beginnings!” the user wrote.