Meta Platforms Inc. implemented another round of layoffs on Wednesday, this time affecting engineers and adjacent tech teams, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg took additional steps to streamline the company in an effort to make 2023 a “year of efficiency.”
Meta was the first big tech company to announce a second round of mass reductions in March, stating that 10,000 employees would be affected over the course of several months and three primary waves.
Even though the layoffs on Wednesday were anticipated, Meta employees expressed displeasure. On Wednesday, prior to an impending employee town hall, the most popular queries posted on an internal company forum concerned layoffs.
“You have devastated the morale and faith in leadership of many hard-working high performers. Why are we staying at Meta?” peruse one query that Reuters saw.
The query refers to remarks Zuckerberg made last year urging employees to work with greater “intensity” to meet the business challenges facing Facebook and Instagram’s parent company.
The business refused Reuters’ request for comment.
Meta’s first round of cutbacks in the autumn affected more than 11,000 employees, or 13 percent of its workforce at the time, and preceded other large tech companies shedding thousands of employees following a pandemic-driven growth in digital advertising and cloud computing.
In conjunction with the reorganisation, Meta is postponing lower-priority initiatives and “flattening” middle management.
Investors have rewarded the company for its restructuring.
Meta shares have increased approximately 80% this year, outpacing the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite’s 16% increase during the same time frame.
The company, which will release its first-quarter results on April 26, is anticipated to benefit from a modest improvement in the digital advertising market and regulatory pressure on TikTok, its primary competitor.
