'Woke Up At 3 AM To Feed Baby': Meta Worker Hit By Layoffs On Maternity Leave Shares Post
Anneka Patel said in a LinkedIn post that she woke up at 3 AM to feed her three-month-old daughter and received a mail at 5:35 AM saying that she was laid off by Facebook.
A communications manager who was on maternity leave was among the 11,000 employees laid off by Facebook owner Meta. Anneka Patel said in a LinkedIn post that she woke up at 3 AM to feed her three-month-old daughter and received a mail at 5:35 AM saying that she was laid off by Facebook. “At 5:35am I got the email that I had been included in the layoffs. My heart sank,” the indian origin woman Patel wrote in the post.
Anneka Patel also said that she was anticipating the email from Mark Zuckerberg about the layoffs so she kept on checking her mail.
"So, what's next? That's a tough one to answer. My maternity leave is due to end in February and while these first few months of motherhood have been some of the most challenging of my life, I wouldn't have traded them for the world," Patel added. Patel said that it was her dream to work at Facebook. She had joined Facebook around 2.5 years back in May 2020. She also expressed her gratitude towards all the people who worked with her.
“For those who know me, working at Facebook (now Meta) has been my dream ever since I moved from London to the Bay Area nine years ago. It’s been an incredible 2.5 years working on the Facebook Groups product, which I truly think is the best part of Facebook. People would ask if it was tough working there with all the bad press, but I would tell them that I was lucky because I got to tell the good stories about the amazing Facebook groups out there, and the work these community leaders are doing to help change the lives of others. I am so grateful and thankful to everyone I worked with for making my time there so special,” the post read.
Patel said she had shifted from home base London to the US with her dream to some day work for Meta. "I'm going to continue to dedicate my time to my daughter over the next few months, and will be open to work in the New Year," she said.
Earlier, Facebook parent Meta announced on Wednesday to slash around 11,000 jobs as a part of mass layoffs to cut expenses and transform its business model. As the tech industry is slashing jobs, Meta too announced layoffs.
"We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1," said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement on Wednesday.
Zuckerberg termed the layoffs as some of the most difficult changes the company has made in Meta's history and added that everyone in the company will soon get an email "letting you know what this layoff means for you." Notably, the layoffs are expected to affect thousands of employees and an announcement is planned to come as soon. Meta reported having more than 87,000 employees at the end of September.
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