Meta is laying off more than 11,000 employees, and Zuckerberg bears responsibility for the decision

Target (M1TA34) dismissed, on Wednesday (9), more than 11 thousand employees, about 13% of global employees, as part of an extensive restructuring to reduce business costs.

Mark ZuckerbergThe CEO, says that this is one of the actions the company will take and that this moment is one of the “toughest times in the history of Meta”. Today he launched a letter addressed to the company’s employees that was posted on the company’s website.

In the letter, the CEO took charge of the decision and stated that layoffs are necessary for the company to be smaller and more efficient. Furthermore, he claims that recruitment has been “frozen” until the first quarter of 2023.

We will have a few exceptions. I will take a look at our business performance, operational efficiency and other macroeconomic factors to determine if and when we should resume hiring. This will give us the ability to control our cost structure in the event that the economic downturn continues,” Zuckerberg says in the public address.

a Infomoney I called Meta Advice in Brazil to understand if local teams were affected as well. In response, the consultant says that the company will not comment on the matter.

In its latest report, Meta said it has 87,000 employees worldwide. In the past two years alone, the company has added more than 27,000 people to the teams, building on the growth that the internet and social networking have recorded during the pandemic.

Rumors about this mass layoff, which could To be the largest in the technology sector by 2022, has been circulating since Monday (7). The dismissed employees were banned from using Meta systems but given access to their email accounts “so that everyone could say goodbye.”

The company says it will pay four months’ wages to employees affected by the cut, plus an additional week’s wages for each year of service with the company.

‘A lot of optimism’

This Tuesday (8) Zuckerberg held an internal meeting in which he stated that he was responsible for the company’s mistakes and that his excessive optimism about growth led to an increase in the number of people, according to the newspaper “Ostado de São Paulo”, who contacted sources familiar with the meeting.

After the meeting, company managers in various departments of the organization began notifying their subordinates about cuts, reorganization and layoffs on Wednesday morning.

Zuckerberg explains in the letter that the cuts affect all areas, but some teams will be more affected than others.

“The hiring will be disproportionate because we plan to hire fewer people next year. We are also restructuring our teams further. This is not a reflection of the great work that these groups have done, but what we need to do going forward. The leaders of each group will schedule a discussion on what This means for their team in the coming days.”

complex stage

It is worth remembering that the actions of Meta (M1TA34) by more than 70% this year. The company highlighted deteriorating macroeconomic trends, increased competition and lost advertising revenue as issues that affected the business far more than expected. But investors were also spooked by its spending and threats to the company’s core business on social media.

The growth of this business has stalled in many markets amid stiff competition from TikTok, and Apple’s requirement that users opt in to tracking their devices has reduced the ability of social media platforms to target ads.

Zuckerberg also states that layoffs were a “last resort” and that from now on, the company will undergo a major cultural change in the way it operates.

“As our office capacity is reduced, we are moving to a table-sharing model with people who already spend most of their time away from the office in mind. We will be rolling out more cost-cutting changes like this in the coming months.”

Meta’s resignation comes just days after Elon Musk, the current owner of Twitter, was fired 50% of the company’s employees are about 7,500 people, including employees from Brazil. although lay off The target is relatively lower (13% reduction), and it affects more people.

(with information from Estadão content)

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