Meta Employees in Bay Area - Layoff Fears & AI Pressure

Working at Meta has its perks -- the paycheck being the biggest, of course. But over the years, workers have described to me the moral tradeoffs they feel they make to work there, as well as the daily cost to their mental health. For so many in the Bay Area, though, those are costs they are willing to endure in order to fund the life they wanted to build here. Today, I published this interview with one longtime Meta employee who is going through it as layoffs loom, and they face increasing pressure to use Meta AI products just to use tokens, and the mood around them devolves into nihilism and grief, all while they have actual work to do, and a future to try to plan. They describe crying in the shower. Pressure to performatively use the AI systems that will soon replace them. This took guts to share. Please read it, and listen tot he accompanying podcast. I am very proud of this work, and the way it sheds a light on how it feels to be inside tech as the AI job apocalypse is descending. Link in comments. And if you've been laid off, or are fearing a layoff, I want to hear from you: [email redacted]