Layoffs in the technology sector in Silicon Valley are nothing new in recent years. At Meta, a few have already suffered and the company has confirmed that, recently, they have further reduced the workforce of some departments, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Reality Labs and more.
Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold defines the layoffs as “changes” they are making to “ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy.” As explained by Meta, they intend to “move some equipment” to other locations. In theory, they are working “hard to find other opportunities for affected employees.”
A former Meta employee noted in TechCrunch that some employees were offered different positions with new contracts. If they did not accept, they proposed compensation for dismissal. One of the people affected was Jane Manchun Worg, a software engineer who had worked at Threads since 2023. As she announced in the application in question, she was still “trying to process” the dismissal and was looking for a job in software engineering/security.
From the media outlet The Verge, they have had contact with sources familiar with the matter and the employees affected by the layoffs worked mainly in:
- Instagram: social network
- WhatsApp: instant messaging app
- Reality Labs: focused on the production of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software
In a TechCrunch article, they comment that workers who had worked in recruiting, legal operations and design at Facebook had also announced their layoffs. Officially, Meta has not clarified the number of people it has let go of and which companies they were part of. Although they have clarified that Threads’ recruiting and legal operations functions are safe.
Other waves of mass layoffs from Meta
Meta isn’t the only tech brand that has laid off people lately. However, it has a long history since 2022 that has not slowed down over the years. It should be noted that the company hired many employees during the pandemic, and many of the layoffs were aimed at resizing the workforce.
First, Big Tech laid off approximately 13% of its workforce in November 2022, which represented 11,000 employees. CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg took responsibility for those decisions in a statement: “I know this is difficult for everyone and I am especially sorry for those affected.” At that time, Twitter (now Stripe had announced that it would cut its workforce by 14% and Salesforce had laid off hundreds of people.
Far from stopping its layoffs there, Meta took off and continued with another second round of layoffs at the beginning of 2023. On this occasion, Meta got rid of about 10,000 employees and Mark Zuckerberg attributed them to a “period of uncertainty” due to the economic crisis. and “geopolitical instability.” In addition, at the same time that Meta announced last year’s layoffs, it also closed hiring for 5,000 vacant positions and canceled more low-priority projects. Therefore, the situation of layoffs and team cost cutting is nothing new.
This time it seems that they have not carried out a massive layoff, but rather have preferred to make small reductions in staff in different departments. In Meta’s last results presentation in February, Zuckerberg noted that 2024 was going to be the “year of efficiency.” Instead of reducing expenses in the development of their version of the metaverse, which is not yet taking off, they have preferred to “reorganize” the workforce.
