Another round of layoffs to hit Meta; 10,000 pink slips to be handed today: Report

Meta is expected to conduct another mass round of layoffs this week. The cuts could affect as many as 10,000 jobs, according to reports by Bloomberg and Vox. The layoffs come after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in March that the company would be cutting 10,000 more jobs in the coming months, on top of the 11,000 cuts in November.

The jolts of this move are likely to be felt across Meta's family of apps - Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the recent Reality Labs that work towards the company's virtual reality goals, and Quest hardware, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News.

The memo circulated to managers indicates that teams will be reorganized and various remaining employees will be reassigned to work under new managers, as per the report. Meta will ask all North American employees who can work from home to do so on Wednesday, in order to have time to process the news, the document said.

Another report from The Vox quoted Lori Goler, Meta’s head of people, from the memo. She said, "This will be a difficult time as we say goodbye to friends and colleagues who have contributed so much to Meta,” the report added.

These continued layoffs are part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for a “year of efficiency” in 2023. Meta's cutbacks and belt-tightening measures are indicative of an intense period of an economic downturn in Silicon Valley, which has forced major tech companies like Meta to reduce costs.

"In our Year of Efficiency, we will make our organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management. As part of this, we will ask many managers to become individual contributors. We’ll also have individual contributors report into almost every level — not just the bottom — so information flow between people doing the work and management will be faster," added Zuckerberg.

This economic downturn has dramatically changed what was once considered a free-spending work culture, with unlimited perks, travel, and non-stop hiring becoming a thing of the past. In the past year, almost every major tech company has had rounds of layoffs, but Meta's have been particularly painful, with the company issuing the cuts in waves.