Publicly traded corporations do not have empathy. They have no loyalty to the employees, only to the shareholders and to profit. Why is this surprising to anybody? It’s not about Meta or AI, this has been happening for decades in tech and outside of tech. Mass layoffs are a part of capitalism in the USA.
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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Breaking: Stormtroopers share their most emotionally challenging moments working for the Empire.
How are you feeling about that now?
I feel torn. Working here is not easy. From the outside, there’s massive negative sentiment, and there’s certainly something there. But the pain of working here is not very well understood. It’s this grand calculus of what it costs to live in the Bay Area and what personal sacrifices you are willing to make and what you’re willing to do for money. On the one hand, I feel massively privileged and lucky to work at a place like this. On the other hand, I’m like, where is my line?
Christ.
I really want to virtue signal while I actively cooperate to make the world a shittier place for money.
Is what I read
Sure, I'm helping usher in the end of democracy in America and pushing for the same elsewhere, but what am I supposed to do, move out of this specific city?
Yeah I have no sympathy.
I'd rather take a cleaning job or something than work for meta.
I once got an offer to work for one of those large mobile gambling app companies as a developer. Probably big money in there too.
I declined and continued to be out of a job for 9 more months, and I still feel like I did the right thing. I wouldn't have had any self-respect working there.
then either quit and be free... or sabotage and destroy from within.
I believe it when they call it golden handcuffs. You'd be giving up an astronomically high salary for potentially long-term unemployment in a recession economy
I think it's the scariest time in tech since I started my career after the 2008 recession.
Golden handcuffs are typically stock awards that take several years to become fully vested (so for a 5 in year vesting periods you receive 1/5 of the award per year). So quitting means leaving a big chunk of money in stocks.
I have a lot of friends stuck at Big 4 accounting firms, working 80-100 hours a week half the year and 50-60 the other half, for this exact reason. Absolutely hellish.
Meta and their intellectual property can burn for all I care. 
Losing a job still sucks in this economy.