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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed employees of his plan to lay off “underperforming workers” during a meeting.
During the Q&A portion of the meeting, Zuckerberg appeared “visibly frustrated” after one Chicago-based employee asked about vacation days.
The employee asked whether extra vacation days introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, also called “Meta Days,” would continue in 2023.
“Um, all right,” Zuckerberg said. “Given my tone in the rest of the Q&A, you can probably imagine what my reaction to this is.”
Zuckerberg said that Meta would be implementing higher standards for its employees.
“Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” Zuckerberg said.
“Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,” Zuckerberg added.
More on this story via NY Post:
Meta has enacted a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting measures as it contends with a major downturn in the market and invests in a costly shift toward the metaverse. The company’s stock is down more than 50% this year.
In the June 30 meeting, Zuckerberg said Meta would slow its hiring plans for engineers by at least 30% this year — adding roughly 6,000 or 7,000 workers rather than the 10,000 it initially projected. Some empty roles will remain unfilled.
Zuckerberg’s open declaration that workers were on the chopping block drew stunned reactions from some of the virtual meetings’ attendees, according to the Verge. The billionaire said the company did not plan to implement layoffs but had not yet ruled them out either.
“Did Mark just say there are a bunch of people at this company that don’t belong here[?]” one staffer asked on an internal messaging platform.
“Who hired them?” another employee quipped.
Others lauded Zuckerberg’s shift in tone.
“This is war-time, we need a war-time CEO,” one employee wrote.
