Meta's CTO says employee morale is among the worst in 20 years following May layoffs of 8,000 workers tied to the company's shift toward AI spending.

What happened: Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told staff on June 2 that morale is 'probably up there' among the worst in two decades, comparing current conditions to the Cambridge Analytica scandal period. In a memo sent Monday, he acknowledged the company did 'an atrocious job explaining the vision' during the AI restructuring and had 'undermined the trust' employees held in their career growth. The layoffs in May cut about 8,000 employees—roughly 10% of Meta's global workforce of around 78,000—and were explicitly tied to funding massive AI infrastructure spending.

Why it matters: Meta has undergone repeated workforce reductions since late 2022 (11,000 cuts), followed by another roughly 10,000 in 2023, with smaller reductions continuing into 2025 and early 2026. This sustained pattern, combined with reassigning thousands of employees into new AI teams, has created strain on retention and trust. Leadership acknowledges the restructuring was poorly communicated, suggesting the company recognizes it must rebuild morale to sustain its pivot toward AI.

What to watch: Meta is attempting to rebuild culture by increasing budgets for travel, events, and office perks, and has told employees reassigned to AI teams they can now apply for other roles within the company if they wish to leave those positions. Stock sentiment on Stocktwits remained in bearish territory over the past 24 hours, and META stock has fallen 8% this year.