Meta employee laid off after 10 years shares gut-wrenching post: ‘Yesterday I was training a new engineer, today I lost my job’

As Meta laid off nearly 8,000 employees across the globe and re-assigned 7000 jobs to AI teams, a heartbreaking post by an employee in Singapore has gone viral on social media. He was asked to quit after almost a decade. Gary Tay, an AdTech Business Support Engineer, wrote in a post on LinkedIn that he spent Tuesday training his new "pod engineer" and the next day, he was "laid off". The terminated Meta employee revealed in his post that he spent 3,544 days at the company, about 9 years and 9 months. He joined in London before moving to Singapore.

"Yesterday i was training up my new pod engineer, glad i managed to squeeze in everything. Today. I'm laid off. 3,544 days (9yrs,~9mths).Hired in London, retrenched in Singapore. Longer than 99.5% of current employees globally. 99.9% longer than anyone in the APAC office," his post read. He said he was grateful to have worked at Meta, formerly Facebook, during its earlier years, adding that not many Singaporeans can say they have been a engineer at Meta and Microsoft for over 15 years.

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AI here to stay, human isn't

In his post, Gray Tad mentioned a line that caught people's attention and captured the unease many tech workers feel as automation reshapes roles. "AI is here to stay, apparently the human isn't. I'll be reassessing my career options in the next few months while i patiently wait for my newborn to come in July," he wrote.

"Grateful for the chance to be part Facebook early days. Not many Singaporeans can say they have been a engineer at Meta & Microsoft for over 15yrs. This year was exceptional. Spent a huge amount of time retraining myself with AI and developing systems for the teams. Speed up workload by 2-300% while still keeping SLA with the world's largest clients," his post read.



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How social media reacted

The post quickly went viral on social media, but Tay urged people to "respect and give time to the thousands of affected employees, humans with lives to live and families to care for".

"My heart goes out to you and everyone who got laid off. Such a long time at any company makes you grow attached, but Meta hasn't been what it used to be since Sheryl Sandberg left. Good luck on your future voyages!" one user commented on his post.

"I am really sorry to see this, Gary. You are an exceptional engineer; any company will be very lucky to have you. Sending you positive energy," another user wrote.

"Always a pleasure to work with you. With the immense knowledge you bring, everything becomes a bit easier. Really sad to see you go. Hopefully, we will get a chance to work together in the future," a third wrote.

Meta cuts thousands of jobs

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has laid off around 10% of its global workforce on May 20, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

The layoffs are part of a major restructuring exercise aimed at integrating artificial intelligence more deeply into the company’s operations while simplifying its organisational structure.

As reported by Reuters, Meta’s Chief People Officer Janelle Gale informed employees that the company plans to eliminate thousands of managerial roles and reassign nearly 7,000 employees to AI-focused projects and initiatives.

The restructuring reflects Meta’s growing push toward automation and generative AI technologies as the tech giant increases investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure and product development.