Divisions that will be affected include teams working on Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and the virtual-reality division Reality Labs among others, according to Goler. She advised some employees to not go into the office if it wasn’t critical for their role, according to the memo. Layoff decisions were made by senior leaders as part of the wider restructuring effort, Goler added.
“This will be a difficult time as we say goodbye to friends and colleagues who have contributed so much to Meta,” she wrote. “It will take time for everyone — both those leaving and those staying — to process tomorrow’s news, and I know teams will show up for each other with compassion, support and care.”
Within an hour, thousands of employees Tuesday evening commented or reacted to Goler’s note on an internal forum. Many workers posted saluting and crying face emojis, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company is expected to lay off what probably will be thousands of highly skilled employees — such as engineers and other technical staffers — who help build the company’s products, according to people familiar with the matter. The cuts are a rare moment of vulnerability for engineers at Meta who have long enjoyed job security, high salaries, autonomy and freedom to work on their desired projects, amid stiff competition for talent in Silicon Valley.
Meta spokesman Dave Arnold confirmed the memo was sent but declined to comment.
Employees who are being impacted will be notified Wednesday morning, Goler wrote, though she added the process may differ for workers outside North America. Meta leaders on Wednesday are also expected to reveal how their divisions may be reorganized following the layoffs. The company will tell employees if they are getting a new manager, according to the memo.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last month that the company would announce layoffs and a restructuring of technical teams in late April followed by its cuts to supporting business roles in late May.
In total, Meta expects to cut around 10,000 jobs and won’t fill 5,000 previously expected job openings. In March, Zuckerberg implied that the cuts would disproportionately impact business support staff, arguing that the rebalance will create an “optimal ratio of engineers to other roles” to ensure “our company remains primarily technologists.”
The latest layoffs build on November workforce cuts that slashed 11,000 jobs, or about 13 percent of Meta’s workforce, in the first widespread layoffs in the company’s history.
The looming job cuts have caused anxiety among Meta’s workforce, causing many to question the leadership and direction of the company in recent months, The Washington Post previously reported. Some remaining employees say they are actively searching for new jobs, while others are concerned about how their jobs may change in the future.
Meta faces a variety of business threats, including competition for advertising dollars and users from the short-form video network TikTok. New privacy rules from Apple hurt the company’s ability to offer targeted advertising. Meanwhile, some digital advertisers have reduced their spending amid rising inflation and the slowing demand in the e-commerce market.
In the face of those challenges, Zuckerberg has said one of the company’s top priorities is to become leaner and more efficient. Top executives along with people in human resources, legal and finance departments have been asked to redraw the organizational charts of internal organizations at Meta, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak on internal matters. In addition to the cuts, the company is also deflating the company’s hierarchy to decrease the number of management layers between interns and Zuckerberg, as well as canceling lower-priority projects.
Despite its economic challenges, Meta — which changed its name from Facebook more than a year ago — says it is still pushing innovations. In February, Zuckerberg announced he was creating a new internal working group designed to “turbocharge” the company’s investment in generative artificial intelligence. The company is also pushing its short-form video product, Reels, to compete with TikTok and is exploring building another decentralized social media network that would compete with Twitter.
And Meta is still plowing money into its big bet to build out immersive digital realms known as the metaverse. Zuckerberg believes people will want to work, shop and socialize through augmented and virtual-reality-powered devices, which he has argued will become the next great computing platform.
But Meta has said it expects operating losses for Reality Labs, the division working on virtual reality offerings. The company has struggled to grow an audience for virtual reality and has said much of the technology needed to power the metaverse will take years to build.
