Meta says it will not rule out future layoffs, employees ask Mark Zuckerberg why should they stay

By Divya BhatiMeta is planning a ‘year of efficiency’ that includes layoffs and cost-cutting measures. The company recently began a new round of layoffs impacting 4,000 technical employees in roles such as user experience, software engineering, and graphics programming. Despite already laying off nearly a quarter of its workforce, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that more layoffs and slower hiring can be expected in the future.

During a virtual Q&A session with employees following the layoffs, Zuckerberg announced that he won’t rule out the possibility of future layoffs and that employees should expect a net growth of only 1-2 per cent year over year from now on. According to The Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg also mentioned that the company’s hiring rate is expected to slow down compared to before the layoffs that began late last year.

As part of its recent layoffs plan, Meta made cuts to its information problems engineering team, which is responsible for fact-checking and addressing misinformation claims related to elections. About 75 per cent of this team was let go, with the remaining members being merged into a larger team within Facebook’s integrity operations. Since November, Facebook’s parent company has laid off 21,000 employees, which is nearly a quarter of its workforce.

With consecutive layoffs and the possibility of more in the future, Meta employees are now questioning their job security at the company. The recent announcement has further unsettled employees, with many even questioning CEO Mark Zuckerberg on why they should stay at the company if the year ahead will be characterised by job cuts, slower hiring, and slow growth.

“You’ve shattered the morale and confidence in leadership of many high performers who work with intensity. Why should we stay at Meta?” employees questioned CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a virtual Q&A on Thursday.

Addressing his remaining employees, Zuckerberg stated that Meta is unique in its ability to deliver social experiences at a large scale and across diverse products, making it a great place for those who want to reach billions and have a massive impact. ” There’s no other company in the world that delivers social experiences at the scale that we are and that does so across such a diversity of different products and use cases. So if you want to reach people in the billions and have a massive impact, I think this is a great place to be,” he said.

“I just kind of think that for where we are in the efficiency that we’re able to get from new technologies, that’s probably the right model to expect going forward and that will be a different operating model and I think we can do it well,” Mr. Zuckerberg further added.

Notably, Meta made broad cuts but they were relatively light within the Reality Labs division. However, there were steeper staff reductions in content quality and user experience. During a town hall, employees also questioned why top executives received high performance reviews and bonuses despite being responsible for the layoffs. On that CEO Zuckerberg replied that he was happy with their performance.

Further, some employees also questioned the extent of layoffs in the user experience research operation. Meta’s Chief Product Officer said they appreciated the efforts of laid-off staff and would continue to work on user concerns.

To recall, in November 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 employees and announced another round of layoffs in March 2023, cutting an additional 10,000 jobs. This brings the total number of layoffs to 21,000. Taking responsibility for layoffs Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg also apologised for the decision in an email to affected employees.

Meanwhile, the number of people being laid off in April is currently unknown, with reports suggesting that 4,000 more workers are being let go. As for the reason for layoffs at Meta, Zuckerberg cited several reasons for the layoffs, including an economic downturn and slow growth leading to low revenue growth. He also stated in an email that the company had over-hired in previous years and is now reducing its workforce due to its current struggles.