It’s common on LinkedIn to announce your resignation, thank your former employer for their experience, and then add the tag opentowork. When Meta laid off about 4,000 “underperforming” employees, you might have thought that all of these people wouldn’t want to draw attention to themselves on LinkedIn, who had been branded by the world as subpar. But the opposite happened.
It’s common on LinkedIn to announce your resignation, thank your former employer for their experience, and then add the tag opentowork. When Meta laid off about 4,000 “underperforming” employees, you might have thought that all of these people wouldn’t want to draw attention to themselves on LinkedIn, who had been branded by the world as subpar. But the opposite happened.
Over the course of a day, Meta's laid-off employees took to LinkedIn — not just to announce that they were looking for work, but also to push back against Zuckerberg's assessment of their performance. It was a new take on the classic #opentowork post, in which the respectful tone was replaced with a challenging tone, Business Insider reports .
“I am not a low-performing employee,” the content manager wrote. “I am a flexible, hard-working employee who thrives on the work I am passionate about.”
The product designer claimed, "This label is misleading, and for many of us it is completely wrong."
The lawyer offered to provide checks: “I am not a ‘low-wage worker.’ I have the testimonials to prove it, and countless colleagues and managers can vouch for me!”
The data scientist even uploaded screenshots of his glowing job reviews, which noted that he regularly “exceeded expectations” and “significantly exceeded expectations.”
Employees are publicly defending themselves and accusing their former employer of misrepresenting their work. When LinkedIn launched the #opentowork feature in the early days of the pandemic, it was very difficult to get people to report that they had been fired. Previously, people would usually keep their layoffs a secret, fearing that the stigma would prevent them from finding another job.
Things started to change in late 2022, when the tech sector went through a massive wave of layoffs. Suddenly, tens of thousands of programmers, product managers, and marketers were out of work at the same time. Some company executives went out of their way to apologize for overhiring and praise their laid-off employees as great employees. This encouraged people to use the #opentowork banner to announce their layoffs.
Now, Meta employees are taking this idea to the next level. A new wave of #opentowork posts is allowing Meta employees to assert their value in the marketplace — using social media to counter Zuckerberg’s narrative about downsizing.
But the question here is, will such a confrontation with a former boss hurt their chances of getting a new job?
The standard advice for laid-off employees is to avoid saying anything negative about their former employers, whether on social media or in interviews. Ashley Hurd, a former HR executive who founded a management training firm, admits that being blunt can turn some potential employers off. But if they say no, she adds, it’s not such a bad thing.
“Good employers are looking for people who are good communicators—people who can advocate for their interests as well as their role in the organization,” says Hurd. “Those who speak out may actually end up in a smaller pool of potential employers, but it will be a group that truly aligns with their values and supports long-term career success.”
Sandra Sucher, a Harvard Business School professor who studies firings, agrees that it’s good for employees to advocate for themselves. “I don’t think it’s wrong,” she says. If a CEO says, ‘I’m firing people because they’re not doing a good job,’ reasonable people would ask, ‘Should I accept that or try to change the narrative?’
If the goal of the fired Meta employees is to change the narrative about “ineffectiveness,” it seems they are succeeding in doing so.
People have begun to question the “low-performing employee” label that Zuckerberg has been tossing around. When those who were laid off start sending out their resumes, recruiters are likely to hear that a lot of employees with excellent job reviews were purged.
In addition, cheeky posts are a great way to kick off your job search: many LinkedIn comments are filled with warm reviews from former colleagues and offers of collaboration from complete strangers.
In January, Meta announced a new round of layoffs covering 5% of employees or 3,600 jobs.
In early February, people already started receiving "happiness letters" from the company.
As it turned out later, people with higher performance indicators were laid off .
