Meta [Facebook] planning large-scale layoffs [2022-11]

[BRiT]

Seeing this show up a lot in the news, how Meta is prepping for large-scale layoffs too...

MSN

www.msn.com

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, will begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to the Wall Street Journal.​

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The company has watched its share price plummet by more than 70% this year, with investors wary of big investments in so far underwhelming metaverse offerings that could take years to become profitable—if they ever do. And while Meta remains a juggernaut in social media, threats to that business have emerged as well, with tough competition from rapidly rising rival TikTok and privacy changes on Apple devices.​

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Even some Meta employees working on the metaverse offerings have been unimpressed with them, according to leaked documents, with one commenting, "An empty world is a sad world.” Investors have pressured CEO Mark Zuckerberg to scale back the company’s metaverse investments, to no avail.​

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Zuckerberg believes the metaverse is the company’s future and says it will require more than $10 billion in annual investment. The effort has cost the company $15 billion since the beginning of last year, according to the Journal.​

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...​

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Meta employees will not be completely surprised by the layoffs. Company officials recently told workers to cancel nonessential travel, and in June Zuckerberg told employees at a companywide meeting, “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.”​

 

[digitalwanderer]

I think Zuckberg is just jealous of all the attention Musk is getting with Twitter...

 

[cheapchips]

I liked one of the recent Phil Spencer interviews, where he was asked about the metaverse. Spencer was as polite as always, but to paraphrase his response was "that's a lot of people working on a rubbish videogame" with a barely contained giggle.

The Horizons team is apparently 1900 people, which is nuts. There's no way that's sustainable. No idea what they were thinking letting the team grow that big.

 

[digitalwanderer]

On a related note, Meta just announced the layoffs will start tomorrow morning. I told you Yuckberg was jealous of Musk!

Zuckerberg appeared downcast in Tuesday's meeting and said he was accountable for the company's missteps and his overoptimism about growth had led to overstaffing, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.


He described broad cuts and specifically mentioned the recruiting and business teams as among those facing layoffs, the report said, adding an internal announcement of the company's layoff plans is expected around 6 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday.

 

[SmooTh]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1590302223971803137

 

[eastmen]

I mean if stuff like in this tik tock is real then I def don't feel for these people. I am all for a good work life balance but 23 and being a product manager ?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1589378556957954048

 

[Putas]

if stuff like in this tik tock is real

hmmmmm

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Wait do people actually think what they see on Tik Tok is real?

Regards,
SB

 

[SmooTh]

Another 10k

Zuckerberg touts 'year of efficiency' as Meta lays off an additional 10,000 workers | Engadget

Meta has announced plans to lay off another 10,000 workers as part of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg is calling the company's "year of efficiency.".

www.engadget.com

 

[milk]

Wait do people actually think what they see on Tik Tok is real?

Regards,
SB

That tiktok is hyperbolic, but I live in a place not even close to the Silicon Valley in scale, economic bandwith, etc, and I've met people similar to this chick personally. They are hired pretty much to promote the business and be a pretty face in meetings and social events with investors or prospective B2B partners, or clients. Whatever secretary level task can be offloaded to them at that will take a day for them to do what a non social-network-bimbo would get done in an hour is kind of a bonus.

I've had multiple friends working in trendy tech star-ups here in south america and the stories usually goes as: once they got this or that investor to invest big, often foreing investment, focus shifted from having a small efficient team building a profitable service/product to having the company grow as fast as possible, lowering the bar for who they'd hire zo they could have a lot of employees with low pay rathet than a few well payed because that looks good to investors.

Of course this is not indicative of how things were conducted at giants like google and meta, but shows how unsustainable the culture of this sector of the industry had become. The bubble was very real.