‘Time of great anxiety and uncertainty’: Another round of Meta layoffs to reportedly start next week

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has announced that it will commence a new wave of employee layoffs next week, according to executives who conducted a Q&A session with employees on Thursday. While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously disclosed that layoffs were forthcoming in May, the precise timing was confirmed during the meeting, revealing that the layoffs would primarily impact Meta's business departments and potentially affect thousands of employees, Vox reported.

Vox obtained the recording of a company-wide meeting where Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs said, “It’s just a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. ... I wish I could have some easy way of providing solace or comfort.”

Clegg further revealed that the layoff process would follow a similar approach to the cuts that occurred in April, where 4,000 positions were eliminated from Meta's technology departments. On the day before the layoffs, Meta's head of people will communicate details about the timing and affected teams and impacted employees will be notified first, followed by non-impacted employees.

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While the precise extent of this round of layoffs was not explicitly confirmed by company executives, Zuckerberg had previously stated in March that Meta planned to eliminate 10,000 positions by the end of May, following the initial reduction of 11,000 positions in November. In the previous month, Meta had already cut around 4,000 positions, leaving approximately 6,000 positions potentially subject to elimination in this upcoming round. As of the end of 2022, Meta had approximately 86,000 employees.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to provide further comments regarding the layoffs. The uncertainty surrounding the upcoming wave of layoffs adds to the already challenging atmosphere within the company, but Clegg commended the employees for their resilience and professionalism in the face of such circumstances.

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