It has been a not-good year for the tech industry, especially the social media platforms. Amidst the pandemic, the industry showed promising growth due to digital invasion, but it is not the same case in the post-pandemic world. With deteriorating stock numbers and fear of an impending recession, companies are laying off their employees. After Elon Musk implemented the layoffs, Mark Zuckerberg is all set to sack employees at Meta.
On Monday, Wall Street Journal released a report about the possible firing of the employees at Meta. Mark has already hinted about focusing on specific small growth areas. But, to do so, he will sack thousands of his employees to revive the financial losses. It is reported that the layoffs will begin on Wednesday morning.
Also Read: After Twitter, Is Meta Planning A ‘Mass Layoff’?
“Over-Optimism Led To Overstaffing”: Mark Zuckerberg Held Himself Accountable
On November 4th, 2022, Twitter sacked half of its 7,500 employees due to a reported $4 million loss every day. The move affected the employees, who alleged that the company did not give them prior notice before implementing the move. Now, Meta is set to lay off its employees and the CEO is taking the blame on him. As per reports, Meta faced a loss of 70% of its stocks due to rising competition from TikTok and Apple.
Meta layoffs will happen in the morning.
On a call with a large team of execs, Zuckerberg said he had been overoptimistic and is "accountable" for the need for the cuts. https://t.co/04OVxYmNIP
— Jeff Horwitz (@JeffHorwitz) November 8, 2022
On Tuesday, in a meeting, Zuckerberg told his executives about the move getting implemented in the wake of overstaffing and certain missteps. Meta houses 87,000 employees globally. He has estimated approximately thousands of employees will get fired. Due to this, Meta’s layoff could be the largest this year. Zuckerberg cited the missteps and “over-optimism” about the potential growth that led to overstaffing. The tech giants recruited largely during the pandemic due to the exponential growth in the sector.
Also Read: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Issues A Very Serious Warning To Meta Staff
Business And Recruiting Teams Will Face The Brunt
Regarding over-optimism, Meta was planning for heavy investments in the virtual reality sector. Mark had a budget of $250 million to invest in it. During his Q3 meeting, the CEO hinted at “shrinking the workforce” to “focus investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas”.
The layoffs at Meta will begin early Wednesday morning. The fired employees will be promised that they will receive severance for four months.
The cutoffs will happen mostly in the business and hiring teams. It is reported that in 18 years, it will be the biggest employee cuts that will occur in the company. It is not the only company that has implemented layoffs. Before Twitter, Elon Musk announced a reduction in the headcount of employees at Tesla. In October 2022, Microsoft also let go of its 1,000 employees.
