Zuckerberg kickstarts mass layoffs at Meta companies Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram today
Zuckerberg apparently said that his over-optimism led to overstaffing (photo-DailyO)
After Twitter's hiring and rehiring fiasco, Silicon Valley is now rocked by the news of Meta Platforms that plans to start its mass layoffs from today for cost-cutting reasons. While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has not confirmed the exact number of employees who will be fired, industry analysts predict this to be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) layoffs of this year.
The layoffs at Meta come just a week after Elon Musk's massacre at Twitter.
The signs were already there: The news doesn’t appear to be that shocking given how Zuckerberg himself had been offering hints. In September, the CEO remarked on how he aims to cut down and reorganise teams. This went in tandem with the company’s recruitment freeze for any new employees.
On November 8 itself, Zuckerberg had been readying his organisation for the calm before the storm, informing them that the fired employees would be receiving notifications by November 9.
Meta is pulling offers before the layoffs pic.twitter.com/q2LySlM3NL
— Blind (@TeamBlind) November 8, 2022
Why are these layoffs happening? As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the 38-year-old Zuckerberg himself took accountability for his California-based business’s missteps. According to people who attended a Facebook exec meeting on Tuesday, Zuckerberg claimed that his “over-optimism” about growth led to “overstaffing”.
Outside observers claim that a decline in sales and reading profitability are other major reasons behind the layoffs.
I have a very close friend in Meta. He moved to London , few months back and was having a ball over there. Often he urged me to come over to Meta , and enjoy London.
— Riddhi Dutta (@rite2riddhi) November 8, 2022
Now as he speaks dejected , I come to know Meta is planning a huge layoff by this week. I am speechless.🙂🙂
How will this impact Meta’s future? With Meta Platforms owning Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, all three branches are bound to cut down on their workforce. The current number of employees at Meta stands at 87,000.
As per a Meta spokesperson, the road ahead for the company includes 'investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas'. Senior managers are also reportedly telling their employees to cancel all non-essential travel from this week onwards!
To get back to 2019 employee levels, Meta would have to layoff almost half the company
— Elad Gil (@eladgil) November 6, 2022
Google would have to layoff ~30%
The amount of hiring (overhiring?) the MAMA companies have done in the last 2-3 years is strikinghttps://t.co/rhxyhw8A13https://t.co/VBYTyXwKoX pic.twitter.com/4o0xAKFbhv
In Musk's footsteps: This news comes just days after Elon Musk-led Twitter fired almost 50% of its workforce to manage the company’s losses. While Musk often relies on tweeting out important announcements instead of having press releases, it is yet to be seen how Zuckerberg formally breaks the news about the layoffs.
Imagine the fired employees getting a complimentary VR headset only for a 3D-animated Zuckerberg to tell them in the MetaVerse, “YOU’RE FIRED!”