Facebook to Purge Thousands of Workers as Part of Quiet Layoffs – A report says that Facebook executives are in the process of firing underperforming employees in “quiet layoffs.” This could mean that thousands of employees get their pink slips. Several employees told the news site Insider that as much as 15% of the company’s staff could be laid off in the next few weeks.
One employee told Insider that all of the company’s managers had been told to pick at least 15% of their teams that “needs support.” Facebook employees used the workplace app Blind to presume that whoever was put in the 15% category was probably going to be fired. If Facebook gets rid of 15% of its employees, that could put about 12,000 people out of work.
Most people think that people who are deemed to “need support” are not meeting performance goals. Then, these workers have to do new things as part of a “performance improvement plan” (PIP), which is seen as a step toward being fired.
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Insider says that Facebook’s chief engineer, Maher Saba, told managers in July that they needed to start looking for “needs support” employees on their teams, but they didn’t say how many. Insider said that a Facebook employee said that those who are “PIP-ed” are already being told by management that they need to look for work elsewhere. “It may look like they’re moving on, but they’re actually being kicked out,” the employee told Insider.
Facebook employees have known for months that they might lose their jobs. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, told employees last week that the company isn’t taking on any new employees. Zuckerberg said that the economy was to blame and warned that the company might have to be downsized or restructured.
“I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now, but from what we’re seeing it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively,” Zuckerberg reportedly said. His comments were first reported by Bloomberg News.
Zuckerberg said that all of Meta’s departments and subsidiaries, like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, would have their budgets cut. The CEO said that during Facebook’s first 18 years, the company grew very quickly. But, according to Zuckerberg, sales and income have been flat for the past few quarters.
At its peak, the price of Meta’s stock was close to $380 per share. But in the last year, the price of the company’s shares has dropped by about 60%. Even though Facebook is still the leader in mobile advertising, there are serious questions about whether it can keep growing, especially with TikTok from ByteDance giving it a lot of competition.
Shares of Meta were trading 1.41% higher as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. The economic downturn and grim projections are also forcing the company to abandon plans to expand its commercial real estate footprint in New York City, according to Bloomberg News.
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The news site said that Meta is exercising its option to terminate its lease at 225 Park Avenue South. The Park Avenue location was earmarked to serve as the company’s “bridge space” before expanding its operations and opening up new digs at Hudson Yards and the Farley Building near Penn Station in Midtown. Despite the decision, Meta says it is “firmly committed to New York and further anchoring our local footprint.”
