Meta's 'year of efficiency' continues, thousands more expected to be laid off

AppleInsider

Meta is not quite finished streamlining its workforce, with plans for another culling of thousands of employees being considered by management.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

In November, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was laying off 13% of its workforce, equating to approximately 11,000 in job losses. It seems that another employment bloodbath is in the cards.

A new wave of layoffs are being planned, according to Bloomberg. Thousands more employees are expected to get let go, with the fresh round hitting as soon as this week.

While earlier rounds were apparently an attempt to flatten the organization's structure, complete with managerial buyout packages and cutting entire teams thought to be non-essential, the new round may be more money-motivated. People familiar with internal matters at Meta claim the next round is being driven by financial targets, and is separate from "the flattening."

As part of the process, directors and vice presidents have been asked to produce lists of employees that they deem could be let go.

The speed of the layoffs is in part due to Zuckerberg himself, with those working on the initiative aiming to prepare it all before the CEO goes off for parental leave.

The layoff initiatives are apparently sapping morale of the workers who stay behind, with some describing heightened anxiety among colleagues. There are also fears over whether exiting workers will receive bonuses that are set to be distributed in March, which may not be awarded if they're outed beforehand.

Add in a hiring freeze that was instigated in May 2022 and blamed on Apple's App Tracking Transparency for costing Facebook $10 billion in lost revenue in 2022, and things are looking grim for the workforce.

It may be a "year of efficiency" for Meta's management, but to employees, it's continuing to be a year of fear and worry.

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isrs

Is this still all Apple’s fault? Can only point the finger at others so many times before it shows one’s own failure to adapt. 

foregoneconclusion

“Efficiency” is just corporate jargon for increasing workloads/responsibilities for remaining employees without any increase in compensation. In other words, the majority of employees being laid off are not redundant. 

mark fearing

Few will be engineers. The question really is - how many employees does Facebook need? I have enough tech experience to understand that it's complicated but the layers of marketing people ETC must be massive to lose 11,000 at a time and still move forward.

rotateleftbyte

Zuck to BOD:
What Elon can do, I can do better. 

BOD to Zuck:
What about the service? Twitter is a C*********K at the moment.

Zuck to BOD:
Hold my beer.

{Not a FB or Twitter user}

tenapplesupontop

Getting rid of redundant and/or useless roles such as DEI should be done regularly, not when a company hits hard times. Most of these people are productive for 1 or maybe 2 hours a day and spend the rest of the time watching Anime and screwing around on their phones on the company dime.

danox

mark fearing said:

Few will be engineers. The question really is - how many employees does Facebook need? I have enough tech experience to understand that it's complicated but the layers of marketing people ETC must be massive to lose 11,000 at a time and still move forward.

The engineering and design part of the company is probably a very very small part of Facebook, a large percentage outside engineering/design probably never should’ve been there in the first place, it’s all on Mark. Social media companies historically come and go like TV/Movie companies, which is why I hate all those people who say Apple should buy existing content companies, Apple however, did do it the right way by taking their time and building up the TV/Movie part from scratch.

But, I still don’t like Apple being in content directly financing and making stuff, like social media it is ultimately a losing low margin distraction area for Apple. I don’t think it sells any more Apple devices, MBA’s, Wall Street may believe it, I think Apple has always sold devices because of the overall engineering design, combined with fit and finish, and just the way the devices work in unison when compared to the competition. (being the last major vertical computer company is key)

beowulfschmidt

I wonder if any of the rank and file get the same type of parental leave the CEO does?  And before someone spouts out "FMLA", I'm aware that FMLA exists, but only for certain classes of employees, and only unpaid.  I'm sure the CEO can weather 12 weeks of not being paid far, far more easily than any of the people who work at the lower levels.

strangedays

TenApplesUpOnTop said:

Getting rid of redundant and/or useless roles such as DEI should be done regularly, not when a company hits hard times. Most of these people are productive for 1 or maybe 2 hours a day and spend the rest of the time watching Anime and screwing around on their phones on the company dime.

Hmm can we review your data on this claim, Mr productivity expert?

danox

beowulfschmidt said:

I wonder if any of the rank and file get the same type of parental leave the CEO does?  And before someone spouts out "FMLA", I'm aware that FMLA exists, but only for certain classes of employees, and only unpaid.  I'm sure the CEO can weather 12 weeks of not being paid far, far more easily than any of the people who work at the lower levels.

In America probably not…..

mattinoz

So year of efficiency doesn't apply to the very bloated apps they make?

isrs

beowulfschmidt said:

I wonder if any of the rank and file get the same type of parental leave the CEO does?  And before someone spouts out "FMLA", I'm aware that FMLA exists, but only for certain classes of employees, and only unpaid.  I'm sure the CEO can weather 12 weeks of not being paid far, far more easily than any of the people who work at the lower levels.

My company provides it to all. Paid. Chances are Facebook does, too. Especially if they have discretionary time off vs standard PTO

chadbag

If they wanted to be more efficient they’d give Zuck and the metaverse the boot.  

Instilling fear in your employees does not raise efficiency      And layoffs don’t bring long term prosperity.  They just lower the quality of your work force, lower the institutional knowledge and awareness of your organization, instill fear and doubt in your employees, and pander to the wrong people on Wall Street.  It doesn’t make your company stronger.  It doesn’t serve your long term shareholders.  It just causes you to hemorrhage “value” to the vultures — day traders, hedge funds, etc.  

blastdoor

If we go back to a time when Facebook was a nice way to connect with old friends and acquaintances, share vacation photos, and wish people happy birthday, then we are talking about a company of fewer than 2000. 

filemakerfeller

danox said:

mark fearing said:

Few will be engineers. The question really is - how many employees does Facebook need? I have enough tech experience to understand that it's complicated but the layers of marketing people ETC must be massive to lose 11,000 at a time and still move forward.

The engineering and design part of the company is probably a very very small part of Facebook, a large percentage outside engineering/design probably never should’ve been there in the first place, it’s all on Mark. Social media companies historically come and go like TV/Movie companies, which is why I hate all those people who say Apple should buy existing content companies, Apple however, did do it the right way by taking their time and building up the TV/Movie part from scratch.

But, I still don’t like Apple being in content directly financing and making stuff, like social media it is ultimately a losing low margin distraction area for Apple. I don’t think it sells any more Apple devices, MBA’s, Wall Street may believe it, I think Apple has always sold devices because of the overall engineering design, combined with fit and finish, and just the way the devices work in unison when compared to the competition. (being the last major vertical computer company is key)

Software Sells Systems.

In other words, people are buying a solution to one or more problems they perceive themselves as having. Hardware fit and finish is a great differentiator for Apple, but so is device reliability, service availability, interoperability, communications, gaming, entertainment, etc, etc. The more problems you can solve, the more customers you will have.

hexclock

beowulfschmidt said:

I wonder if any of the rank and file get the same type of parental leave the CEO does?  And before someone spouts out "FMLA", I'm aware that FMLA exists, but only for certain classes of employees, and only unpaid.  I'm sure the CEO can weather 12 weeks of not being paid far, far more easily than any of the people who work at the lower levels.

Just curious as to where you get the 12 week figure from. In my state you can file for unemployment the second you get home from work on your last day, and have payments coming in within 2-3 weeks tops. 

As far as FMLA goes, my wife just filed FMLA paperwork because she had to go out of state to help her sick father. She was approved for paid leave with no fuss at all.
Aside from that, if these employees are so valuable, they should have no problem finding work; There are millions of unfilled jobs all across the country. 

edited March 2023

beowulfschmidt

hexclock said:

beowulfschmidt said:

I wonder if any of the rank and file get the same type of parental leave the CEO does?  And before someone spouts out "FMLA", I'm aware that FMLA exists, but only for certain classes of employees, and only unpaid.  I'm sure the CEO can weather 12 weeks of not being paid far, far more easily than any of the people who work at the lower levels.

Just curious as to where you get the 12 week figure from. In my state you can file for unemployment the second you get home from work on your last day, and have payments coming in within 2-3 weeks tops. 

As far as FMLA goes, my wife just filed FMLA paperwork because she had to go out of state to help her sick father. She was approved for paid leave with no fuss at all.
Aside from that, if these employees are so valuable, they should have no problem finding work; There are millions of unfilled jobs all across the country. 

Unemployment and FMLA are different things in the U.S.

12 weeks is the federally mandated minimum, but there are employment requirements, i.e. some number of hours in the last 12 months, and there are limitations on what constitutes a valid reason to take the leave.  In addition, the federal law does not require that employees be paid while on leave.  The company is required to have that person's job, or one with comparable pay and duties, available when the person returns.

States are free to add additional requirements, but they are not allowed to reduce any benefit provided at the federal level, e.g. mandating 8 weeks instead of 12, or raising the number of hours required before eligibility.

And companies are absolutely allowed to provide even more benefits.  Some do, many do not.