Meta said it would cut 5% of its “worst performing employees” and plan to hire for affected positions.
The layoffs are aimed at “raising the bar” for employee performance, a Meta spokesperson confirmed to Reuters on January 14. According to the person, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has warned of similar job cuts over the past year.
After cutting low-performing employees, Meta said it would hire new people this year to fill the void left behind, as well as increase competition among employees. According to Meta’s announcement, as of September 2024, the company had more than 72,000 employees globally, meaning about 3,600 people were laid off.
Previously, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Zuckerberg said he had “decided to raise performance management standards” and that the quick layoffs were intended to “remove low performers.” In a subsequent Workplace post, the Meta chief said he would make “more sweeping cuts” during this year’s performance review cycle. Those laid off will be notified on February 10.
According to two Meta employees, the company began its annual performance review process last week, asking employees to submit self-evaluations, peer and management reviews.
Meanwhile, another memo shows Meta’s director of people development Hillary Champion saying the company “is aiming to lay off approximately 5% of current employees who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance review.” Those laid off will “receive generous severance packages, equivalent to previous cuts.”
Meta did not comment on this information.
Last week, Meta said it was disbanding its DEI team focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and scrapping similar programs in its hiring process. Days earlier, Zuckerberg also said he was changing his content moderation policies, including eliminating third-party moderation partners in favor of a community annotation model similar to X.
On January 10, Zuckerberg also assessed that AI is getting more powerful and has a high possibility of doing the work of mid-level engineers in the company this year. “Probably by 2025, Meta and other companies are working on this problem,” Zuckerberg said on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, referring to the goal of automating programming. “There will be an AI model that works like a mid-level engineer, with the level of someone who can write code fluently.”
Meta had a “performance year” in late 2022 and early 2023, laying off more than 20,000 employees in two waves. The company spent more than $3.5 billion to downsize, including $2.5 billion on facility consolidation, which means closing and streamlining offices, and $1 billion on “severance and other personnel costs.” Zuckerberg said at the time that the strategy helped the company meet its 2023 goals: revenue increased 16% and profits increased 69%. Wall Street was pleased, too, with Meta’s stock hitting an all-time high of $450 on February 1.
