You’re suddenly told to WFH tomorrow. Are you about to get fired over Zoom?

Meta laid off hundreds of employees this week, just months after notable cuts to its virtual reality and metaverse division. These job losses amount to less than one percent of the company’s overall workforce, reportedly impacting about 700 employees across a number of departments. But recent headlines indicate there’s likely more to come: Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Meta was planning large-scale cuts to its workforce that could slash 20% of jobs—or more—to help offset the company’s investments in artificial intelligence. (At the time, Meta dismissed those claims as “speculative reporting about theoretical approaches.”)

Layoffs are not exactly unexpected in the current environment, where employers feel emboldened to use AI as a justification for trimming headcount; companies like Amazon and Block have cut thousands of jobs since the start of the year. What might be more interesting, however, is how Meta went about its latest round of cuts. According to Business Insider, multiple Meta employees were told to work from home on Wednesday, seemingly in anticipation of the layoff announcement. The employees were notified through an email from HR on Tuesday night, which simply stated that leadership would share further details. Sources told Business Insider that the emails were received by employees in at least two departments. 

It’s not clear whether the employees in question were, in fact, impacted by yesterday’s layoffs. But in a decade that has normalized Zoom layoffs, this isn’t an unusual tactic. Being asked to stay home—particularly at companies that have been strict about return to office policies—can be a sign that layoffs might be coming. 

Some companies seem to believe it’s easier to control the narrative and protect against retaliatory behavior if employees are not physically in the office when layoffs take place. After Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he laid off about half of the company’s workforce almost immediately. In emails that went out in the evening, employees were asked to stay at home the following day, as the layoffs were announced. Some people reportedly lost access to internal platforms that night, before being officially notified about their employment status. (Days later, Musk reversed the company’s remote work policy, forcing employees to return to the office full-time.) When companies like Tesla and Google have carried out layoffs, some employees have reported that they tried to go into the office and found that their badges were deactivated. 

Since the pandemic, a more impersonal approach to delivering news about layoffs has been normalized to some extent. Some employers have drawn negative attention for being particularly callous: In 2021, the Better.com CEO Vishal Garg laid off hundreds of employees over a Zoom call, a move that garnered widespread criticism. In recent years, companies like Tesla and General Motors have even notified employees about layoffs through email—or via calendar invite, in the case of Intuit. 

There are, of course, more humane ways to let go of employees, even remotely. But many companies struggle to conduct layoffs with compassion, and very often, leaders fail to take accountability or offer employees enough transparency when they disclose job losses. The regular cadence of mass layoffs over the last few years has also empowered employers to act with more impunity, since they are shielded by the sheer scale of job losses. 

As widespread AI adoption continues apace, it will certainly yield further layoffs and more displaced workers—and companies are likely to become even more vigilant about the potential fallout. So if your employer has a strict in-office policy and suddenly asks that you work from home, it could very well mean layoffs are around the corner. 

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