Meta Platforms Announces Further Job Cuts in March as Part of “Year of Efficiency” Plan
By Meta Platforms, Inc, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, is reportedly planning further job cuts in March, after having laid off 13% of its workforce in November of 2022.[0] This is part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan for a “Year of Efficiency” and a leaner organization, a move which has already helped the company’s share price recover from its worst year ever.[1]
Citing two anonymous Meta employees, the Financial Times reported that the company is delaying finalizing the budgets of several teams ahead of this round of job cuts.[2] This has caused a lack of clarity about budgets and future headcount, with employees complaining that “zero work” is getting done as managers have been unable to plan their coming workloads.[3]
The process, known internally as a “flattening”, will involve higher-level managers sharing the directive with their subordinates in the coming weeks, separate from the company’s regular performance reviews that are currently underway.[1] The individual contributors will not be in charge of others, but instead focus on tasks like coding, designing and research.[1]
Zuckerberg said during the February earnings call that the company was also deploying AI tools to help its engineers be more productive and be “more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial.”[4] He added that the company’s metaverse division, Reality Labs, notched a loss of $13.7 billion for 2022, up from a $10.2 billion loss in 2021.[5]
Meta declined to comment about Bloomberg’s report and didn’t immediately respond to Mashable’s request for comment.[4] It is unclear how many people will be affected by the job cuts.
0. “Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META): Are More Layoffs in Store?” TipRanks, 13 Feb. 2023, https://www.tipranks.com/news/meta-platforms-nasdaqmeta-are-more-layoffs-in-the-offing
1. “Meta Asks Many Managers To Become “Individual Contributors” Or Leave” NDTV, 8 Feb. 2023, https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/meta-asks-many-managers-to-get-back-to-making-things-or-leave-3763332
2. “Some Meta employees are getting paid to do ‘zero work' as the company embarks on a ‘year of efficiency': Financial Times” Yahoo Finance, 13 Feb. 2023, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-employees-getting-paid-zero-060252947.html
3. “After sacking 11,000 employees in November, Meta to fire more people in March?” The Week, 12 Feb. 2023, https://www.theweek.in/news/biz-tech/2023/02/12/meta-job-cuts-facebook-instagram-whatsapp-layoff-march-job-loss-firing-sacking.html
4. “Meta is asking some managers not to be managers — or quit, report says” msnNOW, 9 Feb. 2023, https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/meta-is-asking-some-managers-and-directors-to-move-to-roles-that-dont-involve-any-managing-or-quit-the-company-report-says/ar-AA17hZmr?li=BBnb7Kz
5. “Why Meta Is Reportedly Planning To Sack More Employees This March” Bitcoinist, 12 Feb. 2023, https://bitcoinist.com/meta-to-cut-jobs-this-march/
