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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly laying the groundwork for mass layoffs at the company.
Zuckerberg is expected to identify employee performance as the reasoning behind the layoffs.
During a weekly employee meeting, Zuckerberg said,” If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history.”
“Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” Zuckerberg said.
Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,” he added.
In addition to these potential cuts, Meta pulled back on the hiring of new engineers in 2022 from 10,000 to between 6,000 and 7,000, according to the Western Journal.
Meta was supposed to be a fresh new rebrand of Facebook.
We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet, and it’s the next chapter for our company too,” Zuckerberg said in October of 2021.
Zuckerberg claimed, “The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”
There was of course lots of backlash in response to the metaverse.
Truth Tent reported:
Meta shares have declined more than 50% so far this year as Zuckerberg attempts to reinvent his social media giant as a metaverse company. As The Post previously reported, some Meta workers have grumbled that the company’s share slump is crushing the value of their stock options.
Meta’s struggles have coincided with a broader downturn in the tech sector. The Nasdaq has fallen into bear territory and posted its worst first-half performance on record.
Meta chief product officer Chris Cox emphasized the severity of the situation in a separate memo to workers ahead of Zuckerberg’s remarks, according to Reuters.
“I have to underscore that we are in serious times here and the headwinds are fierce. We need to execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets,” Cox wrote.
Mid-August, Meta fired 60 people at random, using an algorithm.
The workers were informed via a video conference call that they would have no work as of September 2 and their pay would end on October 3. No specific reasons were given other than that they were chosen “at random.”
Apple has also been laying off more of its workers. They laid off 100 of its recruiters in August.
