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Meta plans to cut 5% of employees
Mark Zuckerberg's move to favour «strongest talents»
January 24th, 2025
A few days ago, Meta announced to its employees its intention to lay off 5% of its workforce. The company, founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and now the owner of social media platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, will decide which employees will need to pack their bags based on their performance. In a memo made public by Bloomberg, it is stated that Zuckerberg’s plans are to lay off the company’s lowest-performing employees and replace them with new hires. According to the latest available data, Meta currently employs approximately 72,000 people, as reported by Bloomberg, so the layoffs are expected to affect more than 3,000 jobs.
In the memo signed by Mark Zuckerberg, the entrepreneur stated that although staff cuts for underperforming employees are usually carried out over the course of a year, this time the company wants to expedite the process. The cycles of layoffs aimed at «raising the performance bar» - Zuckerberg wrote - are not new for Meta: in 2023, the founder had announced plans to eliminate 10,000 positions. The purpose of advancing the layoffs, the memo reads, is to ensure the company has «the strongest talents». The first to be updated about their future at Meta will be U.S.-based employees, who will learn their fate in February, while the rest of the staff will have to wait a bit longer. Following the announcement, the company’s shares dropped by 2.1% on Tuesday, although the first signs of decline began the previous day.
It will be «an intense year» for Meta, Zuckerberg continued in the memo, where the company’s focus will primarily be on the use of AI, smart glasses, and changes to social media. In recent weeks, Meta has undergone several transformations, a realignment process thought to be related to the new Trump administration that began on January 20. Earlier in January, the company discontinued its fact-checking initiative, a campaign against misinformation launched on its platforms in 2016, similar to X’s "Community Notes." In an Instagram reel, Zuckerberg explained the decision as a return to «free expression». The conservative shift of Meta was not unexpected: with competitor X’s owner, Elon Musk, currently serving in the White House’s "Department for Government Efficiency," Zuckerberg found himself forced to adhere to Trumpian ideals. Appearing on one of the latest episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast, the Facebook founder launched into a misogynistic critique of the corporate world, claiming that today it «is culturally neutered. It’s one thing to create an environment that’s welcoming for everyone, but it’s another to suggest that masculinity is inherently bad. I think embracing aggression has merits that are really positive».