Meta Prepping Fresh Round Of Layoffs – Report

Mark Zuckerberg could be about to let go more members of staff at Meta Platforms, it is being reported.

On Wednesday the Washington Post reported that the Meta is plans to “push some leaders into lower-level roles, flattening layers of management.”

Meta it should be remembered let go 13 percent of its workforce last November, which translated into more than 11,000 employees.

More job losses

Mar Zuckerberg admitted at the time that that he mistakenly believed the surge of e-commerce and revenue growth seen at the start of the Covid pandemic.

But Meta is now contending with soaring costs thanks to its heavy Metaverse spending, plus a weak advertising market, leading Zuckerberg to tout that 2023 will be a “year of efficiency”.

Now the Washington Post, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Meta is planning a fresh round of job cuts in a reorganisation and downsizing effort that could impact thousands of workers.

According to the report, Meta now plans to push some leaders into lower-level roles “to deflate the company’s hierarchy” and flattening the layers of management between Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s interns.

Besides planning to push some leaders into lower-level roles without direct reports, Meta also plans that “other managers may end up overseeing a higher number of employees as their teams grow bigger.”

Furthermore some inside Meta expect staff whose jobs have been converted to eventually quit, trimming the company’s workforce by default.

In addition to targeting managers, Meta is also considering more traditional cuts, including slashing some projects and jobs, the person told the Washington Post.

These reductions will reportedly be worldwide and not limited to any particular department, and will take place over the coming months, and may not happen on a single day.

Meta response

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone in a series of tweets hit out at the WP report for saying that Zuckerberg had promised not to cut more jobs, pointing to several previous statements by Zuckerberg suggesting that more cuts were on the way.

The @washingtonpost got this one wrong. With all due respect, @loriamontgomery, @cpassariello, @markseibel, @laurastevens, how do you run a story with a headline/storyline that is contradicted by the reporting in the very same story — as well as previous reporting? https://t.co/KnmspMFN5t

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) February 22, 2023

Zuckerberg had told investors earlier this month that last year’s layoffs were “the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end.” He said he would work on “flattening our org structure and removing some layers of middle management.”

Last November’s job cuts were the first bout of layoffs for Meta in it’s 18-year history.

Meta is not alone though, with other tech companies also cutting thousands of jobs.