Meta to Cut Another 10,000 Jobs and Cancel ‘Low Priority Projects’
Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta, confirmed recent reports that another round of layoffs was approaching by announcing intentions to trim its personnel by another 10,000 individuals and remove over 5,000 vacant positions that it has not filled.
Also, according to Zuckerberg, the business would halt “lower priority projects” since he “underestimated the indirect expenses” related to these activities.
As the social networking giant moves on with what it is calling its “year of efficiency,” Meta announced just four months ago that it was shedding approximately 11,000 employees. In total, this implies that since the end of last year, Meta has effectively laid off — or plans to lay off — around one-quarter of its workers.
The parent company of Facebook stated that it anticipates the most recent reorganization initiatives to begin in its tech divisions in April, followed by its business units in May.
In a message to workers that was later made public, Zuckerberg stated that “in a small number of circumstances, it may take till the end of the year to implement these adjustments”. “Our timetables for overseas teams will also change, and local leaders will provide further information in the coming days. There is no avoiding the difficulty of this.
In a different SEC filing, Meta stated that it now anticipates its 2023 full-year costs to be in the $86 billion to $92 billion range, down from an earlier estimate that reached as high as $95 billion. Zuckerberg said that the business would lift its employment freeze across all of its groups once the most recent reorganization initiatives are over.
Flattening
Notwithstanding Zuckerberg’s lack of detail on the jobs or “lower priority initiatives” that would be cut, he did mention “flattening” the numerous departments and organizations that make up the Meta Platforms Inc. business, which will include reducing some of the managerial layers.
Every tier of a hierarchy, according to Zuckerberg, adds delay and risk aversion to the information flow and decision-making process. Before transferring work further up the chain, every manager normally analyses it and smooths off any rough edges. We will reduce the number of levels of management in our organization throughout our Year of Efficiency. We will ask several managers to participate in this as individual contributors. Also, we’ll have individual contributors report into practically all levels, not just the bottom, allowing for quicker information flow between workers and management.
Zuckerberg was eager to emphasize that Facebook was developing for the long-term, with a sustained focus on AI and the metaverse, similar to the rhetoric behind its previously-announced wave of layoffs in November. There is little evidence to suggest that Zuckerberg’s unwavering belief in the metaverse will change any time soon, even though many people have largely viewed its pivot to the metaverse back in 2021 as a major mistake that is nowhere near ready to generate the kinds of rewards its shareholders might like.
The development of AI and its integration into each of our products is the focus of “our single greatest investment,” Zuckerbeg stated. “I believe the experiences it provides will be incredible. We have the infrastructure to execute this at a scale that has never been achieved. The future of social interaction will be shaped by our pioneering work creating the metaverse and the next generation of computer platforms.
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