OAN Staff Lillian Mann
4:03 PM – Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Tech giant CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly instructed North American employees to work from home as Meta prepares to lay off 10% of its global workforce amid a major corporate restructuring.
The Facebook and Instagram parent company is moving 7,000 employees into artificial intelligence-focused roles as the social media giant arranges for roughly 8,000 employees to be cut this week.
The move reflects a massive corporate shift fueled by Zuckerberg’s push for the company to be more AI-oriented as part of the CEO’s push to make AI Meta more competitive with challengers such as OpenAI and Google.
Meta is now reportedly pouring billions into data centers, computing power and engineering talent, as they shift into smaller teams to make operations move more efficiently and with more autonomy, according to a Tuesday memo from human resources chief, Janelle Gale obtained by Reuters.
North American employees were reportedly told to work remotely on Wednesday as part of the layoffs which will reportedly roll out in three increments.
“As org leaders worked on the changes, many of them incorporated AI native design principles into their new org structures,” Gale told Reuters. “We’re now at the stage where many orgs can operate with a flatter structure with smaller teams of pods/cohorts that can move faster and with more ownership.”
“We believe this will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding,” she added.
Nonetheless, ahead of the layoffs, one employee told the San Francisco Standard that their Meta office has been in “chaos” as employees fear they’ll be cut.
“I am generally dissatisfied with leadership and angry,” the unnamed employee told the publication. “This is as anxious and stressed as I have ever been at a job.”
Meta had nearly 79,000 employees at the start of the year, meaning the upcoming round of layoffs would rank among the largest in the social media giant’s history.
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