If the layoffs we saw at the end of last year weren’t spooky enough, it seems they’re gearing up again for Meta. Just months after the company laid off 11,000 of its employees, we’re seeing red flags waving of the social media giant preparing to let go of even more people.
In a recent influx of performance reviews, the Facebook and Instagram parent company rated thousands of employees as “subpar,” setting the tone for what seems to be the beginning of another chunk of the Meta workforce blowing away in the winds of “efficiency,” as Mark Zuckerberg calls it.
At the beginning of this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg named 2023 the “year of efficiency,” relating back to what was mentioned above. During the earnings call where he made the claim, he also did away with the companies “bonus metric.” The reviews are understandably causing fear and panic among workers who see this as a clear sign of something deeper about to happen.
In total, managers in charge of overseeing employees and giving performance ratings gave around 10% of the company’s workers negative reviews. Before the pandemic, some will remember Zuckerberg’s previous way of handling worker assessments, which was much less than gentle. This new tactic is reminiscent of that one.
In a Facebook post made at the beginning of February, Zuckerberg stated, “We’re working on flattening our org structure and removing some layers of middle management to make decisions faster, as well as deploying AI tools to help our engineers be more productive. As part of this, we’re going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial.“
Interestingly enough, the Metaverse division seems to be safe from potential layoffs for now. Despite Meta failing to adequately engage users, resulting in billions of dollars in losses, Zuckerberg remains attached to the idea.
