Meta lets go of 11,000 employees (13%) to become a leaner and more efficient company

Mark Zuckerberg of Meta has announced that it was letting go of 11,000 employees (13%) to become a leaner and more efficient company. Innovation Village reported some days ago that the company was planning a massive layoff of workers. The layoffs cuts across all of its companies including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The Meta CEO made this announcement in a message to the employees today saying,

“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history. I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.”

“I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”

“Everyone will get an email soon letting you know what this layoff means for you. After that, every affected employee will have the opportunity to speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions.”

“Some of the details in the US include:

• Severance. We will pay 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap.
• PTO. We’ll pay for all remaining PTO time.
• RSU vesting. Everyone impacted will receive their November 15, 2022 vesting.
• Health insurance. We’ll cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.
• Career services. We’ll provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.
• Immigration support. I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need. 

Outside the US, support will be similar, and we’ll follow up soon with separate processes that take into account local employment laws.”

He said that the company made the decision to remove access to most Meta systems for people leaving today given the amount of access to sensitive information. “But we’re keeping email addresses active throughout the day so everyone can say farewell.”

Mark said that the company would be embarking on other measures apart from the layoffs to be a more efficient company. The other measures include:

• transitioning to desk sharing for people who already spend most of their time outside the office,
• extending its hiring freeze through Q1 with a small number of exceptions, and
• review of the company’s infrastructure spending

He remarked that the company all these changes for two reasons: “our revenue outlook is lower than we expected at the beginning of this year, and we want to make sure we’re operating efficiently across both Family of Apps and Reality Labs. “

He ended the message to the Meta employees by saying,

“We’ll share more on how we’ll operate as a streamlined organization to achieve our priorities in the weeks ahead. For now, I’ll say one more time how thankful I am to those of you who are leaving for everything you’ve done to advance our mission.”

This is the second high profile massive layoff in the last couple of days after Twitter let go of 50% of its workforce following the acquisition by Elon Musk