Meta cuts 5% of jobs to make up for losing ‘lowest performers’

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner Meta is preparing to cut around 5% of its global workforce as the company looks to shed “low performers faster”.

In a memo to employees, boss Mark Zuckerberg said he had decided to accelerate the company’s regular performance-based cuts in anticipation of an “intense year.”

He said the company would “backfill” the roles later in 2025.

The company, which employs about 72,000 people globally, did not say how the cuts would be distributed around the world.

Affected workers in the US will know by February 10, according to Mr. Zuckerberg’s memo. Those outside the US will be notified “at a later date.”

“This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams,” he wrote.

“I have decided to raise the level of performance management and rapidly weed out low performers.”

The move follows other major decisions by Mr. Zuckerberg, including moves to end the company’s fact-checking and diversity programs.

Performance-based job cuts are common in corporate America. In meta, they would typically come out over the course of a year, Mr. Zuckerberg said, but the process was being accelerated this year.

Around 3,600 people may be affected by this move. He will receive a “generous severance,” he said.

The last major cut in META occurred in 2023, when the company Nearly 10,000 posts cut The cost-cutting drive came after Mr Zuckerberg declared it “the year of efficiency”. it Nearly 11,000 roles to be cut in 2022,

Mr. Zuckerberg also appears to be improving his public image.

On a recent podcast with Joe Rogan, Mr. Zuckerberg said he thinks companies need more “masculine energy” and discussed taking up martial arts, which he enjoyed because he felt it could enhance his corporate Can express themselves more fully than the role.

He said, “When you’re running a company, people generally don’t want to see you as this ruthless person who is exactly like I will crush the people I’m competing with.” “But when you’re fighting, it feels like not.”

“I think in some ways when people see me compete in sports they say, ‘That’s the real Mark.’