‘6 out of 7 layoffs targeted non-Chinese’: Ex-Meta engineer makes explosive claims

Mass layoffs at Meta have once again sparked conversations about workplace culture in Big Tech, but this time, it is not just the layoffs themselves making headlines. A former engineer’s emotional post about feeling excluded at the company is now going viral online.

Jeremy Bernier, who says he was among the thousands of employees affected by Meta’s recent job cuts, opened up about his experience working at the company in a lengthy post on X. According to him, some teams inside Meta were heavily dominated by Chinese employees, and he claimed non-Chinese workers often ended up feeling isolated both socially and professionally.
Bernier alleged that certain teams, especially in Meta’s ads and MRS divisions, were made up almost entirely of Chinese employees. He claimed that even though non-Chinese workers were already a minority in these groups, they still seemed to be hit harder during layoffs.

One issue that particularly bothered him was language use in the office. According to Bernier, Mandarin was commonly spoken during casual workplace conversations, team lunches and informal discussions, which he said often left non-Chinese coworkers sitting quietly without understanding what was happening around them. He clarified that official meetings were usually conducted in English, but claimed people would quickly switch back to Mandarin once those meetings ended.
To explain why the experience stayed with him, Bernier compared it to a recent visit to South Korea. He said people there continued speaking English around him simply so he would not feel excluded from conversations. According to him, that same effort was missing in parts of his work environment at Meta.

The former engineer also spoke about feeling socially cut off during lunches and team dinners. He claimed there were days when he and another non-Chinese teammate would be left out while the rest of the group went together for meals.
And for him, that was not just about lunch.

Bernier argued that informal social settings inside workplaces matter more than people realise. Conversations during lunches, dinners and casual hangouts often shape team bonding, visibility and workplace relationships. Feeling excluded from those spaces, he said, naturally creates disadvantages over time.

At one point, he even recalled a team dinner at a Korean barbecue restaurant where he felt senior employees deliberately distanced themselves from non-Chinese coworkers.

Despite the criticism, Bernier repeatedly clarified that he was not attacking Chinese people as a community. He mentioned having close Chinese friends and described many colleagues as kind people. Still, he maintained that the larger culture within some teams felt exclusionary from his perspective.

He also alleged that certain internal “cliques” inside teams helped some employees gain influence and survive layoffs more easily than others.

Bernier ended his viral thread by calling for stronger inclusivity efforts at Meta. Among the changes he suggested were more diverse teams, stricter action on discrimination complaints and stronger English-speaking workplace norms. So far, Meta has not publicly commented on his claims.