10/9/22, 1:33 PM Facebook 'Quiet Layoffs' Will Impact Thousands of Jobs, Employees Say

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Facebook is conducting 'quiet layoffs' by

urging managers to label a certain number
of workers as underperforming. The moves
may lead to thousands of job cuts.
Kali Hays Oct 4, 2022, 4:00 AM

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10/9/22, 1:33 PM Facebook 'Quiet Layoffs' Will Impact Thousands of Jobs, Employees Say

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook leaders have given many hints that a
reorganization is coming.

Now, a specific number of workers are to be deemed "needs support,"

Insider has learned.

The company is already telling some to find other jobs, leaving workers to
call it "quiet layoffs."
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, is undergoing "quiet layoffs"
through shifting performance expectations that could affect as much as 15%
of the company's workforce, several employees told Insider. 

It told staff last week in a weekly Q&A with CEO Mark Zuckerberg that it was
extending a hiring freeze that's been in place since May. Just before this
meeting, executives told directors across the company that they should select
at least 15% of their teams to be labeled as "needs support" in an internal
review process, one of the people who spoke with Insider said. All the workers
asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information.

This was also discussed last week in a post from a Meta worker on Blind, an
app popular with tech workers that requires a valid company email address to
use anonymously. "These 15% will likely be put on PIP and be let go," the
person wrote. The post prompted hundreds of comments from many other
Meta workers who debated how many people would be let go.

In Facebook's employee-review process, someone deemed in need of support

is ostensibly dipping below performance goals. It is broadly seen by workers
as a H
"performance-improvement
O M E PA G E plan," or PIP, and a precursor to losing your
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job. In July, Maher Saba, Meta's head of engineering, told managers they

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10/9/22, 1:33 PM Facebook 'Quiet Layoffs' Will Impact Thousands of Jobs, Employees Say

job. Ju y, a e Saba, eta s ead o e g ee g, to d a age s t ey

needed to identify everyone on their teams who fell into the "needs-support"
category but did not specify a percentage of people who should be labeled
that way.

If 15% of staffers were pushed out, Meta would shed roughly 12,000 workers. A
spokesperson for the company declined to comment.

With so many people deemed underperforming, and some being given 30

days to find a new position at the company or else leave, one staffer said Meta
was basically doing "quiet layoffs."

Another person familiar with the company's hiring process told Insider some
managers in the process of being put on a performance-improvement plan, or
who are expected to have their teams dissolved, were being told to find jobs
elsewhere.

"It might look like they are moving on, but the reality is they are being forced
out," the person said.

Snap, Snapchat's parent company, did something similar in the run-up to its
recent reorganization. Managers there were urged early this summer to put at
least 10% of their workers on performance-improvement plans, and some
managers told their teams early on to expect layoffs. The company at the very
end of August cut roughly 20% of its full-time workforce, even shutting down
a number of projects and acquired apps. The company is now working to
reinvigorate its ads business under a "code-red" mentality. 

Looking for a specific percentage of workers to be labeled underperforming is

another sign that Facebook is headed for some sort of organizational
restructuring or layoffs. Workers have been bracing for such a move for
months,
HOM with
E PAanGexpectation
E of a 10% reduction in head count by the end of
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the year, if not more, Insider reported in July. The company has already

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10/9/22, 1:33 PM Facebook 'Quiet Layoffs' Will Impact Thousands of Jobs, Employees Say

t e yea , ot o e, s de epo ted Ju y. e co pa y as a eady

started to reduce staffing in its major contractor hub of Austin, Texas. 

Days before Meta implemented its hiring freeze in early May, after two years
of hypergrowth and becoming a workforce of more than 80,000 people,
Zuckerberg said more employees choosing to leave would "make us a better
company."

Since then, Zuckerberg has said that he will rein in costs and "level-set" the
trajectory of the business, that many teams "will shrink," and that he expects
the company to "get more done with fewer resources." Other leaders have said
in internal messages, meetings, and memos that the company is pushing a
new mandate of "increased intensity," with the ultimate goal of finding people
to let go, in one way or another.

A number of factors is influencing Meta's digital-advertising business, which

accounts for nearly all of the company's revenue. When it implemented its
hiring freeze in May, David Wehner, its chief financial officer, said revenue
growth had slowed. In speaking with workers last week, Zuckerberg said he
hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now, Bloomberg
reported.

"But from what we're seeing it doesn't yet seem like it has," he added, "so we
want to plan somewhat conservatively."    

Are you a Facebook/Meta employee or someone with insight to share?

Contact Kali Hays at khays@insider.com, on the secure-messaging app
Signal at 949-280-0267, or through Twitter DM at @hayskali. Reach out
using a nonwork device.

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