Meta to Lay Off 5% of Employees Following Performance Reviews

Meta is preparing to lay off 5% of its underperforming employees, Techjuice confirmed Tuesday.

According to an internal memo, Mark Zuckerberg instructed Meta workers that the firm would be more stringent with its performance monitoring and “remove low-performers” quickly.

The performance review cycle for this year would include “more extensive performance-based cuts,” according to Zuckerberg. Employees are required to submit three types of reviews: self-reviews, peer reviews, and manager reviews. The process started last week.

In the memo, Zuckerberg promised that affected US workers would receive notification by February 10. According to another email written by Hillary Champion, Meta’s director of people development, the firm intends to fire “approximately 5% of our lowest performers.”

The most recent earnings report for Meta was dated September 30, 2024, and it stated that the firm has 72,404 employees worldwide. Champion noted that, as with prior layoffs, impacted employees will receive severance compensation.

Meta not only announced a larger reorganisation but also the dissolution of its DEI-focused staff and the end of diversity programs in the company’s recruiting practices. According to Janelle Gale, VP of human resources at the organization, the word “DEI” has become “charged” and some people perceive it as biased in favor of particular groups.

Meta also announced policy changes for content moderation earlier this week, doing away with external fact-checkers and replacing them with a community notes mechanism similar to X.

As part of Zuckerberg’s efforts to make 2023 Meta’s “year of efficiency,” the business laid off 10,000 workers in March. These layoffs were preceded by these occurrences.

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech, so we’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our polices and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said in a video announcement.

Below is Zuckeberg’s internal memo, which Techjuice obtained.

Meta is working on building some of the most important technologies of the world. AI, glasses as the next computing platform and the future of social media. This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams.

I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster. We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle, with the intention of back filling these roles in 2025. We won’t manage out everyone who didn’t meet expectations for the last period if we’re optimistic about their future performance, and for those we do let go, we’ll provide generous severance in line with what we provided with previous cuts. 

We’ll follow up with more guidance for managers ahead of calibrations. People who are impacted will be notified on February 10 or later for those outside the U.S.