Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, is likely to announce the next round of layoffs on Wednesday (April 19), according to reports by the Washington Post and several interactions on various social media platforms.
In an internal memo obtained by the Washington Post, Lori Goler, the head of human resources for Meta, wrote on Tuesday evening (April 18) that the company would begin notifying employees on its technical teams whose jobs were being cut.
Goler has reportedly said that the divisions that would be affected include teams working on Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and the virtual-reality division, Reality Labs, among others. She advised employees to avoid going to the office if it wasn’t critical for their role, to give people “space to process the news”.
She added that the layoff decisions were made by senior leaders as part of the wider restructuring effort.
Also read: Facebook parent Meta cuts another 10,000 jobs
“This will be a difficult time as we say goodbye to friends and colleagues who have contributed so much to Meta,” Goler said in the memo. Meta employees in North America would be notified by email between 4 am to 5 am PT Wednesday morning, according to Goler’s note. Outside of North America, the timelines would vary country to country, and some countries would not be impacted.
Meta employees in India are anxiously waiting for any official announcement from the company to see if they are among the unlucky ones to face the axe.
‘2023 – year of efficiency’
Sources say that Meta is also about to announce newly re-organised teams as the social media giant strives to become leaner and more efficient.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, last month declared 2023 the “year of efficiency” for the firm. He made this remark after two rounds of job layoffs by the company in the previous six months. Meta sacked 11,000 employees (13 per cent of its workforce) in November 2022.
In March this year, the firm announced that it would implement another 10,000 job cuts. Since then, there have been several rumours going around in the company that April 19 would probably witness the beginning of the next round of layoffs.
Also read: New round of layoff likely as Meta delays finalising budgets: Report
Zuckerberg has said earlier that cuts in April would impact tech departments, while another planned round of cuts in May would affect the business side of the company. At the end of last year, Meta had around 86,000 employees.
After nearly two decades of almost continuous growth, major tech companies like Meta are now going through a period of layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. The whole tech industry in the US has changed its free-spending work culture in the recent past, in anticipation of an economic downturn.
“This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Facebook last month. “Over the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, cancelling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates.”
(With agency inputs)