/Tech1h ago

Meta Reverses AI Data Labeling Reassignments and Layoffs After Culture Damage

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Hearing some layoffs are reversed, forced reassignments to manual data labeling mostly cancelled, and Meta leadership on an apology tour for all the below.

Better late than never but why on earth did Meta do all of this when their business was never as good as now is madness

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

So apparently after Meta leadership:

- Force reassigned some of the best devs on teams to AI data labelling fulltime

- Laid off another 10%

- Started to record every dev’s screen in the US 24/7

They now realized that it has, indeed started to destroy their eng culture. And are now trying to walk back.

All of the above was unprompted, not forced by anything external or even business reasons (Meta recorded record revenue, record profits)

The biggest self-inflicted eng culture destruction I’ve seen in a matter of weeks

5:37 PM · Jun 26, 2026 · 61K Views

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Many users slammed Meta's leadership for an AI-driven rampage of data labeling reassignments and layoffs that damaged engineering culture and trust.

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Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

Apparently this article I wrote has been going around, as well as longform writing from ex-Meta engineers who have been hugely bullish on Meta like @michaelnovati saying the same, that Meta’s leadership is destroying their competitive advantage, eng

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-meta-destroying-its-engineering

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

Hearing some layoffs are reversed, forced reassignments to manual data labeling mostly cancelled, and Meta leadership on an apology tour for all the below.

Better late than never but why on earth did Meta do all of this when their business was never as good as now is madness

1h5.6K306

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Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

@michaelnovati Update: forced reassignments not cancelled. Those reassigned are given the option to live back to their old teams… but their former managers / directors not told about this, so it’s full limbo.

So it’s not a full 180, and plenty confusion remains for now on the reassignments

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-meta-destroying-its-engineering

1h3.7K523

Ugur Toprakdeviren@toprakrun

@GergelyOrosz Why aren't things going well for Meta?

1h179

Gergely Orosz@GergelyOrosz

@toprakrun Things went extremely well until leadership started to go on an AI-fueled unprompted rampage to destroy the eng organization

More details here https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/why-is-meta-destroying-its-engineering

1h1363

R 'Nearest' Nabors@rachelnabors

@GergelyOrosz Yeah, it's going to take some head-on-floor apologizing. Meta is a dog that bites now. Will take a new generation of engineers to forget what happened

1h1151

rahul@ErRahul337

@GergelyOrosz What do you think triggered this sudden overreach at Meta despite record profits? AI pressure or something internal?

1h19

Rick@RickRodrig24092

@GergelyOrosz @michaelnovati Yes yes... let the limbo flow through it.

1h11

Shubham Srivastava@shubvastav

@GergelyOrosz leadership decisions like these are a good reminder for those with imposter syndrome that no one truly knows what they're doing

1h11