“I set my alarm at 6 a.m.,” said one META employee, to find out if an early-morning email would deliver a pink slip from Menlo Park-based Meta.
Around the Metaverse, at at least 4000 workers got the ax along with his morning cup of coffee on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, when Facebook’s parent company META announced broad layoffs in its third round. The company is expected to trim its workforce with another round of job cuts in May.
“Looks like I’ve been let go in this round of Meta layoffs,” former employee Jeff Bull Jr. announced. on Twitter, inquiring for a new job as a Unity developer. The job cuts affected many employees in technical roles and product-oriented teams.
“A lot of managers have become individual contributors,” added one current employee.
The biggest layoffs in the tech industry since 2001
According to the Kobeissi letter (TKL), which tracks tech layoffs, the recent streak of previously unassailable tech giants is the biggest since November 2022. TKL announced that in 2023, its count officially topped 170,000 cuts so far . “As of January 2022, we’re close to 350,000 tech workers laid off. This is the largest wave of layoffs since 2001.”
META planned several layoffs to reduce its global workforce by 10,000 employees in restructuring efforts to be “leaner and more efficient,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a November 2022 blog post to employees. He announced a hiring freeze until the first quarter.
“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta history. I have decided to reduce the size of our team by 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go.”
Pandemic bugs didn’t come out
Tech companies like Meta, Facebook and Google are shrinking after contracting during the pandemic as the world moved online and e-commerce surged.
However, predictions of earnings growth that would accelerate permanently after the pandemic did not materialize. Instead, increased competition, macroeconomic downturns, and the loss of ads led to a drop in revenue.
“I made a mistake and I take responsibility for it,” Zuckerberg admitted.
On Twitter, Shobit Shrivastava pointed out“At this point, the layoffs at Meta seem more like Zuck is making up for the Metaverse debacle than anything rational. He’s firing people to restore his own credibility as CEO.”
#MetaLayoffs are not a surprise
The layoffs did not surprise most employees.
“I got hit with the #MetaLayoffs and I’m no longer with the company. Super upset, but not totally surprised. No hard feelings about it, it is what it is,” former employee Jason Nellis posted on Twitter.
Zuckerberg accepted responsibility for the impact of his decisions “and how we got here. I know this is hard for everyone.”
H1B visa holders at risk
As compensation, META offered its laid-off employees 16 weeks of base pay and health insurance for 6 months, among other benefits such as career counseling.
However, the mass layoffs have affected many Indians on H1B visas. They have a grace period of 60 days to find a job or return to India. TARGET has offered support, with Zuckerberg stating: “I know this is particularly difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to plans and work through your immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need.”
As if losing their jobs wasn’t painful enough, former employees will learn that laying off thousands of people META’s share price soars making millions in earnings this year for its named executive officers. Many of them received $20 million in capital grants by 2022, as revealed in Meta 2023 Proxy Statement in April
