Meta Large Scale Layoffs

Updated on 2022-11-21: Meta employees and security guards fired for hijacking user accounts

More than two dozen Meta’s own employees and contractors — including security guards, for some reason — were fired over the past year alone for improperly taking over user accounts, in some cases for bribes. Thousands of people get locked out of Facebook every day but Meta doesn’t have a customer support option (you know, because the people are the product!) But some of those fired had access to internal systems that could help users who were having trouble with their accounts. Read more: Meta Employees, Security Guards Fired for Hijacking User Accounts

Updated on 2022-11-18: Meta fires employees

Meta has disciplined or fired dozens of employees and contractors who improperly accessed users’ accounts for various reasons, including bribery, the WSJ reported. The firings come after an internal probe. Read more: Meta Employees, Security Guards Fired for Hijacking User Accounts

Updated on 2022-11-17

Last week’s layoffs at Meta — which totalled 11,000 jobs — hit several of the top executives working on the news ecosystem. The company didn’t say how many news-related roles were cut, but Nieman Lab made a list that includes friends like David Grant, Dorrine Menzoda, Janie Octia, and Alex Fenby — all big champions of this Splice community. Meta’s support of the industry appears to be over. Even the link to Meta’s grants page takes you to a 404. Read more: Meta’s layoffs make it official: Facebook is ready to part ways with the news

Updated on 2022-11-16: Say hello to apology-as-a-service

Zuckerberg’s recent one for the Meta layoffs ugliness was a bit of a comms coup. His PR machine did a few things right, especially according to the razor-sharp SorryWatch, who outline “The Six Steps to a Good Apology” as follows:

• “Use the words “I’m sorry” or “I apologize.” (“Regret” is not apology!)
• Say specifically what you’re sorry FOR.
• Show you understand why the thing you said or did was BAD.
• Be VEEERY CAAAREFUL if you want to provide explanation; don’t let it shade into excuse.
• Explain the actions you’re taking to insure this won’t happen again.
• Can you make reparations? Make reparations.”

Zuckerberg’s apology had him hold himself personally accountable for the loss of 11,000 people, around 13% of the company’s total count of about 87,000 people (including some of our friends), attributed the layoffs to a specific set of bad decisions he took, said “I got this wrong”, said “I’m sorry”, expressed sympathy, laid out a generous severance package for the people affected, and outlined immigration and career support.

Updated on 2022-11-11

Meta cut 11,000 jobs — about 13% of its workforce — in a reckoning that has been a long time coming.

No other tech company has found itself in such a precarious position with:

• Surging recruitment and talent costs on the gamble that the digital habits we cultivated during the pandemic would be permanent (it wasn’t)
• A bet-the-farm investment on creating a metaverse platform that even employees didn’t want to use (even though it cost the company $12 billion and is racking up billion-dollar losses)
• A drastic slowdown in the digital advertising market as brands hold off on spending in the face of a potential global recession
• Apple’s default do-not-track option on iOS (resulting in lower quality advertising performance for brands)
• Apple’s 30% tax on all ad sales done on iOS (the ultimate toll booth)
• An ongoing pivot to making Facebook and Instagram more like TikTok (and the core audience hates that)
• A 70% fall in its share price this year

Underneath it all, Meta is still a spectacularly profitable company with an industry-leading advertising platform. But with 58% of the voting shares, Zuck is untouchable and is therefore fully responsible for this hot mess that the company finds itself in. Finding the confidence to move forward will be Zuck’s hardest challenge yet. Read his memo to employees here.

Overview: Meta Large Scale Layoffs

In an official statement, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed Meta is reducing its team by 11,000 employees, about 13% of the workforce… and he’s hinting at additional steps to make the company “leaner.” Read more: Mark Zuckerberg’s Message to Meta Employees

Meta is preparing “large-scale layoffs” this week which will affect thousands of employees, according to the Wall Street Journal. The news came soon after the company predicted a weak holiday quarter. Talk about a disappointing year. Read more: Facebook parent Meta is preparing large-scale layoffs this week, Wall Street Journal reports