Meta Streamlines Workforce by Reducing 5% of Staff to Enhance Performance

Fact Labs and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, plans to reduce approximately 5 percent of its global workforce to “eliminate underperformers more swiftly.”

As initially reported by Bloomberg, an internal message from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed employees that the company will be implementing “broader performance-driven reductions this cycle.”

Zuckerberg expressed his desire to “elevate the standards for performance management” in anticipation of an “intense year.”

The comprehensive memo was later acquired by CNBC and states that Meta is currently focused on “some of the most significant technologies in the world.”

“Meta is developing some of the most crucial technologies globally—AI, glasses as the next computing interface, and the future of social media. This is going to be a challenging year, and I want to ensure we have the most capable individuals on our teams,” wrote Zuckerberg.

“I’ve made the choice to raise the standard for performance management and dispose of underperformers more rapidly. We typically assess those who aren’t meeting expectations over a year-long period, but now we will conduct more extensive performance-based reductions during this cycle, with the aim of refilling those roles in 2025.”

“We won’t remove everyone who didn’t meet expectations during the past period if we are optimistic about their future performance, and for those we do let go, we will provide generous severance packages in line with what we previously offered during previous reductions.”

Meta announced that individuals affected by the layoffs will be informed on February 10, 2025, if they are located in the US. Employees based in other locations will be notified at a later date.

This marks the third significant round of layoffs at Meta recently. The company cut 11,000 jobs in 2022 before laying off another 10,000 positions in 2023.

The company formerly known as Facebook is striving to rebrand itself as a leader in the metaverse, yet it has recently experienced its own setbacks under Zuckerberg’s leadership.

Meta’s struggling Fact Labs division, which oversees many of its metaverse initiatives including the Quest headset business, reported a loss of $4.4 billion during the last quarter.

This staggering loss has become normalized within Meta. The division reported yearly losses of $16.1 billion and $13.7 billion in 2023 and 2022, respectively. Experts at Meta anticipate this trend to continue for the foreseeable future.

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