The Man Says He Was Fired From Meta 2 Days After Moving To Canada For Work

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A Meta employee says he was fired from the company two days after he moved from India to Canada for work. Himanshu V., a software engineer from India, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Nov. 10 that he was one of thousands of employees affected by Meta’s mass layoffs. “I moved to Canada to join #Meta and 2 days after joining, my journey ended as I am affected by mass layoff,” Himanshu, a software engineer, wrote in the post. “My heart goes out to everyone who is facing a difficult situation right now.” In four days, Himanshu’s post garnered over 22,000 reactions and 1,000 comments on LinkedIn. Insider was unable to independently verify Himanshu’s account. Himanshu did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. On November 9, Meta announced it would cut more than 11,000 employees, or about 13% of its workforce. “I see layoffs as a last resort, so we decided to rein in other sources of cost before we let teammates go,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post. Meta employed about 1,800 people in Canada, local technology website BetaKit reported on Nov. 9, citing Meta’s LinkedIn page. Himanshu wrote on LinkedIn that he is now looking for a job in Canada or India, but has no idea what’s next. He previously worked at tech companies including GitHub and Adobe, according to his profile. Himanshu is not the only employee who was suddenly fired from Meta days after relocating from India. “Really sad that this happened,” Ja wrote, adding that the process of obtaining a work visa in Canada was “long.” Neelima Agarwal, a software engineer who moved from India to Canada in November, said she was fired two days after joining the company. In a Linkedin post on Nov. 9, Agarwal wrote that she was heartbroken over the layoff after moving to Canada. Agarwal’s post had garnered more than 6,4000 reactions and more than 480 comments from the press. The mass layoffs at Meta’s Canadian office come eight months after the company announced plans to open a Toronto-based engineering hub that would create 2,500 jobs, according to a Meta press release. Jha, Agarwal and Meta did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment. Meta employees from offices around the world took to LinkedIn to write “sign posts” — departure messages with their ID cards — after being fired from the company, Insider previously reported. “Officially a casualty of the mass layoffs at Meta this morning… but honestly, I’m not salty one bit,” wrote Chad Lesser, Meta’s former chief strategist, in a November 10 LinkedIn post.