The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Mark Zuckerberg recently announced a plan to lay off 5 per cent of Meta's lowest-performing employees, joining companies such as Reddit, Intuit, Alphabet's Google, Microsoft and Amazon in trimming their staff. The Post's guest columnists Howard Levitt and Lavan Narenthiran write that not so long ago, helping employees achieve better work-life balance took priority for companies, but with the rise of artificial intelligence, employer focus has shifted toward efficiency, making low-performing workers more vulnerable to automation. Now, employees must deliver value or be replaced. This trend, though controversial, is not new. General Electric's former head, Jack Welch, famously implemented a "Rank and Yank" policy, firing the bottom 10 per cent of employees annually to maintain competitiveness. The strategy appears to be making a comeback. Aside from the legal risks, publicly announcing poor performance as a reason for termination is contentious, as it invites potential uproar, especially in the age of social media. Meta, for instance, has already faced criticism from employees claiming the company's actions were cruel and indifferent to their well-being.