Facebook’s Parent Company, Meta, Reportedly Going to Cut More Jobs This Year

Mark Zuckerberg is on a roll—but not exactly a good one.

Much like how we’re seeing a sizable number of our food delivery employees retrenched, (e.g. foodpanda laying off 5 per cent of its 1,200 workers last year) Meta is undergoing a considerable change.

The only difference is that they are laying off thousands of employees.

Perhaps working in a big tech firm isn’t much of a flex anymore.

Not the First Time They’re Laying off Tons of Workers

In November 2022, Meta had reduced their employee pool by 13 per cent, or more than 11,000 employees, to become more efficient.

In the second round of layoffs, Meta plans to cut workers as soon as this week.

According to Bloomberg News in February, the company aims to flatten its organisation, providing buyout packages to managers and eliminating entire teams that they deem aren’t crucial to the organisation.

Such a move is still being finalised and could affect numerous staff if enacted.

However, the new round of layoffs is driven by financial goals and is not linked to the “flattening”, according to people familiar with the matter.

Meta has been asking directors and vice presidents to list workers who can be retrenched following a lag in advertising revenue and a change in focus to a virtual reality platform called the metaverse.

The layoffs could be finalised next week and are targeted to be ready before chief executive Mark Zuckerberg goes on parental leave for his third child.

Although the first round of reductions surprised the company, the Meta workforce has expected a second round.

Zuckerberg said 2023 will be Meta’s “year of efficiency.”

Anxiety is brewing among the workers as they have started feeling a loss of motivation to work, with some worried that they will not receive their bonuses due in March if they are fired beforehand.

Other Recent Big Tech Layoffs

In other news, Elon Musk has gotten even more insufferable. How is that even possible?

In February, at least 200 Twitter employees were fired—about 10 per cent of the company’s remaining staff, according to the New York Times.

Although Musk mentioned that the layoffs last year would be the last at an internal meeting with employees, this is one of the most extensive cuts ever since he took over Twitter.

It is indeed a scary, scary time to be working at Big Tech.

You can watch this video to know why tech firms are laying off people: