BadLayoffs

Layoff notices for 8,000 employees (10% of workforce) began rolling out globally at 4am local time — starting in Singapore, then sweeping westward through Europe and the Americas. Employees woke up to termination emails with no prior warning of who was affected. Zuckerberg later admitted in a memo that "leadership had handled the run-up badly." The company posted record revenue the same quarter.

~140 employees had their laptops lock at 7am on May 27 — before any layoff communication arrived. Many learned they were fired when their computer simply stopped working. Minutes later, termination notices arrived in personal inboxes. The company's official explanation: access was restricted "a few minutes before" notices were sent as a "standard security process." Employees described waking up to a flood of panicked messages from colleagues trying to figure out what was happening.

Cloudflare cut 1,100 employees — 20% of its workforce — while reporting record revenue growth. CEO Matthew Prince then published a Wall Street Journal op-ed explaining the layoffs using a framework that sorted workers into "builders," "sellers," and "measurers." Those laid off were mostly "measurers" (finance, legal, middle management) — whose jobs, Prince argued, AI can now do better. The op-ed read as a CEO using his own employees' terminations as content for a public thought leadership piece.

CEO Zeb Evans announced the layoff of 290 employees — 22% of the company — on his personal X account to his 229,000 followers, rather than through internal channels. In the same post he unveiled $1 million salary bands for surviving employees: "Most savings from this change will flow directly back into the people who stay." 290 people lost their jobs the same day Evans used the announcement to grow his personal brand and publicly signal he'd be paying their replacements up to $1M.

Google laid off 12,000 employees — 6% of its global workforce — overnight. CEO Sundar Pichai sent the notification email at 6am Pacific. Employees who commuted to the New York and Chicago offices that morning found out they were fired when their badge wouldn't scan at the door. Others found out from panicked Slack messages before the email arrived. Workers described the process as "egregious and unacceptable" — long-tenured employees and recently promoted staff were cut without warning or individual context.

One week after Musk's takeover, Twitter closed its offices and suspended all badge access. ~3,700 employees — 50% of the company — learned they were fired by either receiving a termination email to their personal address or simply being remotely logged out of their work laptop and Slack with no warning. Contractors were cut immediately with no severance. Employees had no advance notice and no time to collect personal belongings from the office.

900 employees were fired on a 3-minute Zoom call two weeks before Christmas. Garg opened with: "If you're on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off." The call ended. Days later, Garg published a letter accusing the laid-off employees of "stealing" from colleagues by only working 2 hours a day. He then took a leave of absence. Three senior communications executives resigned in the aftermath.