Performance-based cuts affect 5% of staff, starting Monday
Meta is expected to carry out “performance terminations” this week, which will roughly cut 5% of its staff and replace them with machine learning engineers, according to the tech company and multiple reports.
Notices regarding the layoffs, which were announced in mid-January, were set to go out to underperforming employees in the U.S. and other countries on Monday morning, Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton told USA TODAY.
Employees in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands will not be included in the staffing cuts “due to local regulations,” while those in more than a dozen other countries across Europe, Asia and Africa will receive the termination notifications between Feb. 11-18, according to the memo, Reuters reported, citing an internal memo authored by Meta’s Head of People Janelle Gale.
Mark Zuckerberg: ‘I’ve decided to raise the bar’
In January, when the cuts were originally announced, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a note posted to an internal message board, “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Bloomberg reported at the time, citing an internal memo sent to employees.
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“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year,” Zuckerberg said, per the outlet. “But now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
Similar to past cuts, Zuckerberg also said that the laid-off employees would receive a “generous severance,” according to Bloomberg.
The goal of the performance-based cuts is to ensure Meta has the “strongest talent” and is capable of bringing “new people in” as the company maneuvers through an “intense year” focused on artificial intelligence, smart glasses and the future of social media, Zuckerberg said in the memo.
It is unclear how many people will be affected by the layoffs, but in September 2024, Meta employed around 72,000 people, so a 5% reduction could reduce staff by roughly 3,600 jobs, Bloomberg reported.
Hiring replacements for laid-off employees could take until mid-March
A separate internal memo, posted by Meta’s VP of Engineering for Monetization Peng Fan on Friday, asked employees to assist with the hiring process for machine learning engineers and other “business critical engineering roles,” Reuters reported. This process would begin on Feb. 11 and last until March 13, Fan said, per the outlet.
“Thank you for your continued support in helping us achieve our accelerated hiring goals, and better align with our company’s priorities for 2025,” Fan said in the memo.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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