Meta-hoarding employees; paying workers to ‘fake work’

An ex-employee of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has accused the organisation of paying employees to pretend to work.

Britney Levy, who was laid off during Meta’s first round of layoffs, has claimed that she was hired for a position where she found herself working alongside unproductive colleagues and had to face difficulties in securing meaningful tasks. She claims that she was paid to perform ‘fake work’.

This allegation comes amidst the company’s second round of layoffs, which affects around 10,000 jobs.  The company had laid off 13 percent of its workforce last year, effectively removing 21,000 employees and even eliminating 5,000 job openings.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO,Meta had previously highlighted the company’s plans to make 2023 the  “year of efficiency” by cutting down on headcount.

However, some former employees, including Britney Levy, are claiming that they were paid to do very little work, leaving them frustrated and without valuable experience to add to their resumes.

Levy described facing several obstacles in her work, such as difficulty getting permission to contact job candidates and a lack of job satisfaction among her colleagues. While being paid to do nothing may seem tempting, Levy emphasised that it was an unproductive experience for her.

Mark Zuckerberg has announced a timeline for the latest round of layoffs, stating that the restructuring might continue until the end of the year.