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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a note to employees Wednesday, seen by Bloomberg, that the company plans to cut approximately 5% of its workforce via performance-based terminations.
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram reported about 72,000 employees as of the end of last September in its third-quarter earnings call, so the cuts could involve roughly 3,600 positions.
In November 2022, the company implemented the first layoffs in its then-18-year history as Facebook and Meta, laying off more than 11,000 of its then roughly 87,000 employees.
Shortly thereafter, in March 2023, the company announced another 10,000 layoffs and the elimination of 5,000 open roles.
However, those two layoff rounds were aimed at cutting staff, whereas in this case, Meta confirmed to Axios that the cuts are strictly performance-based, and that vacated roles will be backfilled.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said in his note, as reported by Bloomberg. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
Bloomberg reported that only people who have been with Meta long enough to be eligible for performance reviews will be affected, adding that U.S. workers will be notified if they are part of the cuts on Feb. 10, with those based on other countries finding out at a later date.
Zuckerberg promised “generous severance” in line with previous Meta job cuts to those affected, Bloomberg reported.
He added in the note that he expected total headcount to be down 10% by the end of the current performance cycle, between this layoff round and an additional 5% attrition when compared with the same period last year.
https://www.adweek.com/media/meta-performance-based-layoffs/