When layoffs have a hashtag: Tech cos see own tools being used to criticise them

There were few scenes of workers packing up their cubicles, shoving plaques in boxes and commiserating over beers.

Instead, there were tweets. Hung Truong watched his Twitter feed fill with layoff-related posts this past week. Friends and former colleagues were all out of work. At the start of the pandemic, he’d lost his job at Lyft. And he recalled the strange relief of posting that on Twitter, knowing he wouldn’t have to give the update to followers one by one.

That’s an experience thousands are now sharing, as Twitter, Meta and other companies slash their workforces: Getting laid off in a time of extreme transparency, with social media providing an outlet for immediate processing.