Meta faces questions after announcing more layoffs
Tech layoffs have been ripping through Silicon Valley for months.
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The backstory: Tech layoffs have been ripping through Silicon Valley for months, at least partly because pandemic-era tech growth just isn't sustainable at this point. Back in November, Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) had a round of layoffs, cutting 11,000 employees. The company has dealt with a weakening digital advertising sector because of economic instability, Apple's stricter new privacy policy, the rise of AI tech and the growing popularity of social media competitor TikTok. Zuck's also put a lot of eggs in one basket with his bet on the metaverse.
More recently: Last week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff there would be even more shifts and changes. Meta will cut 10,000 more jobs and eliminate thousands of currently open positions. Since November, Meta will have scrapped 24% of its total workforce. Naturally, there will be some restructuring occurring at the company.
The development: On Thursday, Zuck hosted a town hall meeting for all Meta's staff. During this meeting, he explained the layoffs by saying that Meta's financial obstacles will probably continue for the foreseeable future. He also said that he understands things could be difficult while they figure out which jobs to cut, but "it's not like we can just pause working while we are figuring this out." When an employee asked him how he could still be trusted, he answered by saying that staff should look at "whether we're succeeding and making progress towards the overall state of goals."
Key comments:
"These companies become hugely profitable and the CEOs think that there are all these other areas they can expand into as part of their world domination plan," a former tech CEO who chose to be anonymous told CNN. "And then the economy takes a turn and everyone starts to care about profitability and growth."
"My guess is that we're we're not the only company that's going through multiple rounds of restructuring or things like that. I'm sure there are going to be a lot more as well over the long term," Zuckerberg said during the town hall meeting.
"People are entering a job market that is the worst I've ever seen," said Erin Sumner, a global director of human resources at DeleteMe, who was also laid off from Facebook in November.
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