Facebook workers fear cuts of up to 10% of staff: Meta is already taking action against the worst performers in what looks like a “witch hunt”

Employees at Meta are bracing for a drastic downsizing after recent comments from executives suggested the company plans to significantly raise performance standards and “push out” those who don’t meet them.

Meta’s head of human resources, Lori Goler, sent out a statement earlier this month suggesting cuts to employees who couldn’t meet the demands, as the company has started operating with “greater intensity”, she has learned. Business Insider. Goler adds in that text that the Meta output of underperforming employees is “the right thing to do.”

Staff cuts could reach 10% this year, says a person familiar with management talks.

“It hasn’t started yet,” an employee tells Business Insider about the cuts, “but they come close”.

Another employee describes feeling like a “witch hunt” at work, as technical managers seem to be looking for who to fire, suddenly and frequently mentioning performance expectations in messages to the team.

Another employee says that Meta recently made him an “exit offer” from the company, basically an agreed compensation. This person accepted the agreement, instead of waiting to be fired at the end of this year.

people who have spoken with Business Insider They have asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the company, although their identities are known by this means.

“We don’t have any layoff plans at this time,” says a Meta spokesperson.

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“Any company that wants to have a lasting impact must practice disciplined prioritization and work with a high level of intensity to achieve goals,” adds the spokesperson. “Reporting of these efforts is consistent with this approach and with what we have already shared publicly about our operating style.”

Goler’s statement told managers to build high-performing teams, prioritize ruthlessly and make the most of synchronous and asynchronous time with teams, according to an employee who has seen the message.

Employees and investors will get more clues about the health of Facebook’s business when it reports its second-quarter financial results on Wednesday. Tech stocks have suffered a widespread decline amid inflation and fears of a recession. Facebook shares have fallen 40% in just six months as it grapples with advertising challenges kicked off by Apple’s privacy changes and deepened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His segment of the metaverse has lost $10 billion in a year.

Facebook, which last year changed its name to Meta Platforms, has hired aggressively in the last two years. It had more than 78,000 employees in March, an increase of about 30% from the previous year. The company wanted to keep up with consumer demand amid the pandemic and remake itself as the company building “the metaverse,” an immersive digital world that Mark Zuckerberg sees as the future (albeit a distant one) of the internet and its business.

In 2020, Facebook launched a “lean expectations” program, which allowed for more flexible performance goals and metrics. Employees could even choose to set their own goals below pre-pandemic expectations. However, as the pandemic boom fades, the company is moving away from this flexibility.

Employees at Meta already said they expected job cuts in early May, after the company partially froze hiring and reduced hiring across the company, according to the company. Business Insider.

The company’s chief financial officer, David Wehner, wrote in a message that the company was going to “reprioritize work” and “review staffing.” This came shortly after Zuckerberg publicly mentioned his feeling that fewer workers at Facebook would make it “a better company”.

Late last month, Zuckerberg said during a weekly question-and-answer session that the company would set “more aggressive goals” in an effort to weed out employees who couldn’t meet them. Around the same time, Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, sent out a message saying the company would use “leaner, leaner, better-prepared teams.”

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Two weeks ago, Facebook’s chief engineer, Maher Saba, instructed all managers in an internal message to collect the names of people on their teams deemed underperforming or even “neutral” for review by Facebook. the company and then include them in a performance plan. Saba pointed out that the process “would happen to the exit of people who cannot get back on track.”

“If a direct report is unsuccessful or underperforming, that’s not what we need; they’re failing the business,” Saba said. “As a manager, you can’t allow someone to be neutral or negative for Meta.”

In upcoming Meta results, Brian Nowak, one of Morgan Stanley’s top analysts, says he expects a new review of Facebook’s revenues, estimating the company will hit some $120 billion in revenue this year, vs. previous 125,000 million. But he expects his TikTok rival, Reels, to start to gain traction, with its revenue doubling next year to $2.6 billion, he adds.

The best hope for now is that the second quarter “will be the nadir” of Facebook’s recent lack of user and revenue growth, Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik said in a note.

“Expectations for Meta have moderated,” he says.

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Facebook workers fear cuts of up to 10% of staff: Meta is already taking action against the worst performers in what looks like a “witch hunt”