Meta has started its mega layoff drive that will be impacting 10 percent of its workforce making for roughly 8,000 employees. The social networking giant, in its pivot towards more AI adoption, has decided to flatten teams and make operations more cost-efficient amid choppy market winds. Termination emails begun reaching the impacted Meta staffers in the wee hours of Wednesday morning with its Asia-based teams reportedly being informed first.
Meta’s teams across Singapore, the U.S., as well as Europe among other global locations will be impacted by the firings. As per Bloomberg, the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant has slashed a fifth of its work force in Ireland, letting go of around 350 employees. The internal engineering and product teams are most likely to see big reductions.
While the lay-off process is underway, the Menlo Park, California-based company has permitted its employees to work from home and wait for an update.
Those receiving the termination emails are immediately being locked out of their work laptops, official accounts, and other internal team communication groups.
As part of its severance package, Meta is offering 16 weeks of base pay to the laid-off employees along with two extra weeks’ salary for each year they worked at the company.
Here’s what the departing Meta staffers have to say
The news about Meta planning a mass layoff in May had started to make it to the headlines earlier in April. Janelle Gale, the chief people’s officer at Meta, had started to inform the company workforce about the decision through townhall meetings and internal memos. Gale had reportedly told Meta employees that market priorities are rapidly evolving that has nudged the company to take steps to stay at par with the intensifying competitions.
Now that the lay-offs have begun, those being let go off are sharing how they met with their termination emails, with most highlighting early morning hours.
Jeremy Bernier, who as per his LinkedIn profile, served as a senior software engineer at the $1.5 trillion company, is among the fired staff members. In a detailed update on X, Bernier said he was actually relieved to have lost the job as it frees him from the “never-ending layoffs, stack ranking, etc.”
Others also shared similar outlooks, expressing respite on getting fired from the company that is facing a staunch criticism on professional platforms like Blind.
Screenshots of Meta’s email to the laid-off employees have also started to make the rounds on social media.
What’s next for Meta
Between January and March this year, Meta clocked a 33 percent YoY spike in its revenue between January and March this year — bagging $56.3 billion. Announcing the Q1 results, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer Susan Li suggested that the company’s AI expenditure could hit as much as $145 billion this year.
In alignment with its planned AI push, Meta has started restructuring its internal teams. As per a memo circulated by Gale, the company has reportedly started reassigning around 7,000 of its surviving staff members into AI-focussed roles and teams.
Reuters has reported that Zuckerberg does not expect more company layoffs this year, which contradicts Gale’s April statement that said that the firings could go beyond 10 percent later this year.
The season of AI-fueled firings
Owing to the lack of regulatory guardrails that ensure the human workforce protection against the rapid AI influx, several corporate layoffs have been announced in recent months. The prevailing market volatility is also visibly adding pressure to the
Coinbase is among companies that cited AI adoption as the reason for cutting its staff by 14 percent last year. Kraken parent Payward and crypto analytics platform Dune, and Cloudfare are among other companies that have recently announced staff departures.
Members of Meta’s workforce have been calling it a “very stressful place to work” with the management constantly changing directions to chase trends.
Source: Blind