(NewsNation) — Former tech workers have taken to social media in recent weeks, sharing their stories of collecting sizable paychecks from large tech companies despite doing very little work.

Madelyn Machado, 33, was hired as a recruiter at Meta in September 2021. She says much of her time was spent in meetings that didn’t accomplish anything, and the company had too many recruiters with not enough work for them to do.

“We just don’t hire anybody and, like, we still get paid,” Machado said in a viral TikTok documenting her experience, adding that she was told she wasn’t expected to hire anyone in her first year because she was still learning the ropes.

Industry professionals say this isn’t surprising

“They were hiring ahead of demand,” Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, told the Wall Street Journal. When there’s a war for talent, “you want to hire ahead of others,” Govindarajan said. Other sectors such as the finance industry in the early 2000s, he said, similarly overhired during periods of fast growth, leaving some workers without enough to do.

Machado worked at Meta for six months before being fired. She was terminated after being reprimanded for posting career advice on TikTok, Meta saying this posed a conflict on interest.

Britney Levy, 35, shared a similar experience in a TikTok post.

“It kind of seemed like Meta was hiring people so other companies couldn’t have us, and then they were just kind of like hoarding us like Pokemon cards,” Levy said.

Levy told the WSJ she was hired as part of a yearlong training program for recruiting diverse talent, but only received one assignment before being laid off eight months later.

“I mean, we were just sitting there,” she said in the TikTok video. “You had to fight to find work.”