CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is firing 11000 employees, staff size reduced by 13 per cent

Mangalore Today News Network / NDTV

New Delhi, Nov 09, 2022: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday confirmed that his company is firing thousands of employees. In a post on his company’s official website, Zuckerberg said that Meta was firing 11,000 employees, around 13 per cent of its total strength. The Meta move came just days after Twitter, which had been acquired by Elon Musk, fired almost 50 per cent of its employees.

 

Although the manner in which the two social media giants have gone about their layoff process is different. Zuckerberg says that the decision to let go of so many employees in one go is the most difficult the company has made so far. Just to give you context, Meta is the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

The job cuts at Meta are impacting its employees in its offices across the world. This means that, in India too, Meta is laying off some employees.

"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 per cent 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," the Meta CEO said in the official blog post.

Zuckerberg says that it is on his watch that Meta is asking thousands of employees to go and he takes full responsibility for it. He wrote, "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."

The company has removed access to most Meta systems for impacted people in the layoffs given the amount of access to sensitive information. "But we’re keeping email addresses active throughout the day so everyone can say farewell," Zuckerberg added.

The CEO said that impacted employees will get an email and get to know what the layoff means for them. Following which "every affected employee will have the opportunity to speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions."

16-week severance pay for Meta employees

The Meta CEO said that employees in the US will get severance pay for 16 weeks, plus two "additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap". Affected employees will get all remaining PTO time, November 15, 2022 vesting, cost of healthcare for them and families for six months, and three months of career support with an external vendor (including early access to unpublished job leads).

The company has also extended immigration support to impacted employees. "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," Zuckerberg noted in the blog post.

Employees impacted outside of the United States will also get similar support. The company said that it will share more country-wise details with separate processes that take into account local employment laws.

Hiring paused at Meta

The layoffs at Meta are part of the company’s attempt to reduce costs. For that very reason, it also freezing hiring as well as reducing its infrastructure cost (shutting down offices etc).

Zuckerberg announced pausing hiring for the next one year and restructuring the business. "Recruiting will be disproportionately affected since we’re planning to hire fewer people next year. We’re also restructuring our business teams more substantially. This is not a reflection of the great work these groups have done, but what we need going forward. The leaders of each group will schedule time to discuss what this means for your team over the next couple of days," he said.

Courtesy: India Today