Mark Zuckerberg fires 11,000 Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp employees
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has sacked more than 11,000 of its employees, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s Chief Executive, announced the mass layoff in a message to employees on Wednesday.
In an address to staff members, Zuckerberg admitted that it was tough laying off thousands of employees to reduce the company’s workforce.
He said: “Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history. I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.
“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.
“At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.
“In this new environment, we need to become more capital efficient. We’ve shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high-priority growth areas, like our AI discovery engine, our ads and business platforms, and our long-term vision for the metaverse. We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency. But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go.”
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The company’s Chief Executive who explained the steps taken to ameliorate the harsh effect of the development on those affected said: “There is no good way to do a layoff, but we hope to get all the relevant information to you as quickly as possible and then do whatever we can to support you through this.
“Everyone will get an email soon letting you know what this layoff means for you. After that, every affected employee will have the opportunity to speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions.
“Career Services. We’ll provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.
“Immigration support. I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need.
“Outside the US, support will be similar, and we’ll follow up soon with separate processes that take into account local employment laws. We made the decision to remove access to most Meta systems for people leaving today given the amount of access to sensitive information. But we’re keeping email addresses active throughout the day so everyone can say farewell.
“While we’re making reductions in every organization across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs, some teams will be affected more than others. Recruiting will be disproportionately affected since we’re planning to hire fewer people next year. We’re also restructuring our business teams more substantially. This is not a reflection of the great work these groups have done, but of what we need going forward. The leaders of each group will schedule a time to discuss what this means for your team over the next couple of days.
“The teammates who will be leaving us are talented and passionate and have made an important impact on our company and community. Each of you has helped make Meta a success, and I’m grateful for it. I’m sure you’ll go on to do great work at other places.”
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