Meta Reportedly Preparing for a New Round of Layoffs – It has been reported that Meta, the social media company, is allegedly planning to carry out another round of layoffs. Financial Times claims that the company has yet to finalize the budgets for its internal teams, indicating that some of them may be impacted by the upcoming workforce reduction.
Managers in every division are facing difficulties in preparing for necessary tasks due to this situation, which is disturbing operational efficiency and causing delays in critical projects like the metaverse and advertising. Internally referred to as “the flattening,” the initiative is adversely impacting employee morale, with some employees questioning the execution of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the “year of efficiency” – a term used to describe the company’s 2023 objectives.
People Also Read: Microsoft Reportedly Shutting Down Industrial Metaverse Focused Group
One employee stated: “Honestly, it’s still a mess. The year of efficiency is kicking off with a bunch of people getting paid to do nothing.” One of the key employees of the metaverse and virtual reality (VR) division of the company, John Carmack, left Meta in December due to operational inefficiencies despite the headcount of the company. “I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy,” he stated at that time.
Meta has already carried out one round of layoffs, which accounted for 13% of its total headcount and affected 11,000 employees. If the current round of layoffs is approved, it would be the second such event within a year. However, Meta’s actions extend beyond this.
According to the reports, the company is now focusing on middle management employees and requesting that they either transition to non-management positions or leave the company. Although the company has implemented various cost-cutting measures.
People Also Read: Yahoo is Laying Off 20% of its Staff
However, it remains committed to the metaverse as a primary long-term focus and plans to continue investing in this area. During the Q4 2022 earnings call, Meta’s CFO Susan Li revealed that they anticipate further losses in metaverse operations in 2023. Similarly, other technology companies such as Microsoft have also announced layoffs in response to the market shifts resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their restructuring efforts.
