- Meta plans to lay off thousands of employees, per Bloomberg.
- These cuts could happen as soon as this week before CEO Mark Zuckerberg goes on parental leave.
- Meta already laid off 11,000 workers or approximately 13% of the company’s headcount in November.
Meta may lay off thousands of employees as soon as this week, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Meta staff working on plans for layoffs hope to bring them to CEO Mark Zuckerberg before he goes on parental leave, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are expecting their third child – a girl.
This new round of headcount cuts comes about due to Meta’s financial targets, and is separate from Zuckerberg’s push for “flattening” Meta’s organizational structure, Bloomberg sources – who were given anonymous to talk about internal matters – say.
A Meta spokeswoman declined to comment on additional layoffs, the expected number of job cuts, and which divisions may be affected. The spokesperson did not immediately respond to Insider’s follow-up question about when the reported job cuts would take place.
News of this next round of layoffs comes four months after Meta cut more than 11,000 jobs – or approximately 13% of its workforce at the time. In February, Zuckerberg also stated that 2023 would be a “Year of Efficiency” for the company, and signaled during an earnings call that Meta was not done with axing staff.
“We closed last year with some tough layoffs and when we did this, I said clearly that this is the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end,” Zuckerberg said during the call. invested, Insider’s Grace Kay reports.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that thousands of workers — nearly 10% of Meta’s staff — received annual reviews showing they were underperforming, which seemed to signal further job cuts.
Insider also reported in December that Meta required its managers to rank twice as many people this year as underperformers in their annual reviews. This gives the company room to let low-ranking workers go after a performance review period, Insider reported.
“Our management theme for 2023 is the ‘year of efficiency,’ and we are focused on becoming a stronger and more agile organization,” Zuckerberg said in the fourth quarter earnings release. of the company, dated February 1.
Before the November layoffs, about 87,314 people worked at Meta, per The New York Times. Meta said in its fourth-quarter investor report that its headcount as of Dec. 31 was 86,482 — but that included a “substantial majority” of the 11,000 people it laid off in November.