GOAL is laying off more than 11,000 of the 87,000 employees currently working for the company. The American technology and social media conglomerate, based in Menlo Park, announced that it will lay off 13 percent of its workforce.
Through a letter addressed to its employees this Wednesday, November 9, the executive director of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, said that these cuts are "some of the most difficult changes we have made in Meta's history."
"I have decided to reduce our team by approximately 13 percent, which means more than 11,000 of our talented employees will leave the company. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a more agile and efficient organization, cutting discretionary spending and extending the hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023," the tycoon said.
The owner of the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, stressed that he takes responsibility for these decisions and for having reached this situation. "I know it is hard for everyone, and I am especially sorry for those who were impacted."
In reaching that decision, Zuckerberg looked back to the fact that, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the world moved rapidly online, and that boom in e-commerce led to massive revenue growth.
He said that many people had predicted that this would be a steady acceleration that would continue beyond the pandemic. “I did too, and that is why I decided to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not happen as I expected.”
He stressed that not only has online commerce returned to its previous trajectory, but the macroeconomy has entered a recession, competition has increased, and the loss of advertising signal has reduced revenues much more than expected. "I was wrong, and I take responsibility for that."
In this new context, he said, "we need to be more efficient in the use of capital," so Meta has directed a greater part of its resources toward a smaller number of high-priority growth areas, such as the artificial intelligence engine for content discovery and advertising and business platforms.
"We have reduced budgets, profits and our real estate spending. We are restructuring our teams to be more efficient. But these measures alone will not be able to realign our expenses with revenue, so I had to make the difficult decision to let part of our team go," he said.
Regarding the layoff process, the Facebook founder said that all employees will receive an email informing them of what the reductions will mean for each of them. Afterwards, each affected employee will have the opportunity to speak and get answers to their questions and participate in information sessions.
"There is no good way to say goodbye to people, but we hope to be able to provide, as quickly as possible, all the relevant information to the affected people and do everything possible to help them overcome this situation."
In the United States, dismissals include compensation, meaning that 16 weeks of base salary will be paid, plus two additional weeks for each year of service, with no limit; in addition, all pending vacations will be settled.
He added that in terms of rights to acquire restricted shares, all those affected will receive their acquired rights on November 15; the cost of medical care for those dismissed and their families will also be covered for six months.
She added that three months of professional support will be provided with an external provider, including early access to job opportunities not yet published; while for those who had an employment visa, there is a notice period before it is considered to be terminated, and there are also grace periods, which allow time to plan and process the immigration status.
Outside the United States, he explained that people will have similar support and, shortly, these processes will be followed up separately, taking into consideration local labor laws.
"We've made the decision to remove access to most of Meta's systems for people who are leaving the company today over issues related to sensitive information. But we'll keep emails active throughout the day so everyone can say goodbye," Zuckerberg said.
It is worth noting that while the reductions are being made across all organisations in the company, some teams will be more affected than others.
The hiring department will be substantially impacted, as fewer staff are planned to be hired, as will the sales teams. “This is not a reflection of the great work these groups have done, but rather what we need to do moving forward. Leaders will schedule time to discuss what this means for each of the teams over the next few days.”
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg said: “The colleagues who are leaving us are talented and passionate about their work. They have had a significant impact on our company and our community. Each one has helped make Meta successful and I am grateful for that. I am sure they will continue to do great work elsewhere.”
The cuts will be added to other measures such as the reduction in real estate spending and the freezing of hiring until the first quarter, with some exceptions.
The changes are primarily for two reasons: revenue prospects are lower than expected earlier this year, and to ensure efficient operations across the family of apps and Reality Labs.
“This is a sad time. There is no escaping it. To those who are leaving, I want to thank you again for all that you have contributed. We would not be where we are today without your hard work, and I am grateful for what you have done.”
However, he said it was also a difficult time for those who remained. “Not only are we saying goodbye to people we worked closely with, but many are also feeling uncertain about the future. I want to make it clear that we made these decisions to ensure a solid future for ourselves.”
META's CEO explained that more information will be shared in the coming weeks on optimized operations to achieve priority objectives.
It is worth noting that a few days ago, the businessman and owner of Tesla, SpaceX and now Twitter, Elon Musk, fired approximately 50 percent of the 7,500 employees that the social network has worldwide, after having acquired it for more than 40 billion dollars, and as part of his plan to save money.
This, he said, was because "unfortunately there is no other option when the company is losing more than $4 million a day."
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