by - Meta signaled in February that it is likely to cut more jobs this year, after shedding 11,000 jobs last year.
- The company delayed setting the budget for some teams as it prepares for the new round of layoffs, according to the FT.
- This resulted in some employees doing “zero work” because managers failed to plan their schedules.
Meta’s “year of efficiency” may be starting on an inefficient note.
The tech giant – which laid off 11,000 people in November and promised 2023 would be a “year of efficiency” – is bracing for a new round of layoffs that could be wreaking havoc on the productivity of some staff, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing two officials familiar with the situation.
There has been a lack of clarity about some budgets – which would normally be finalized by the end of the year – and future headcounts in recent weeks. Therefore, projects and decisions that normally take days to be approved are taking up to a month, Meta officials told the FT.
This caused some employees to do “zero work” because managers failed to plan their schedules.
“Honestly, it’s still a mess,” one official told the FT, adding: “The efficiency year is starting with a lot of people getting paid to do nothing.”
Meta did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment sent outside of business hours.
Meta’s job cuts have led to major disruptions in employees’ lives
Meta’s belt-tightening measures follow CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s acknowledgment that he overestimated the e-commerce boom and had to cut jobs as a “last resort”.
He is not alone. The tech sector is embroiled in layoffs that have so far affected more than 101,000 employees across 340 tech companies in 2023, according to the layoffs.fyi tracker.
And even the news of further job cuts at the tech giant came as no surprise.
Meta signaled in its fourth-quarter earnings release on Feb. 1 that it is likely to carry out more layoffs. And Meta’s nervous staff is bracing for another round of job cuts even before the earnings call, Insider’s Kali Hays reported.
Meta’s drive for efficiency has prompted the company to ask some managers and directors to transition to individual roles — or leave the company, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
“We’re working to flatten our organizational structure and remove some layers of middle management to make decisions faster, as well as deploying AI tools to help our engineers be more productive,” Zuckerberg said on Meta’s Q4 earnings conference call with analysts. about 1 February.
These job cuts and the resulting uncertainty led to major disruptions in the lives of affected employees, some of whom took to social media to report on the life-changing event.
Many of the employees who were laid off expressed gratitude for the opportunity to work at the company and were optimistic about the future, but they were also fearful and uncertain, reported Jyoti Mann and Grace Kay in November.
Despite the human cost, Meta’s cost-cutting measures appear to be working — its fourth-quarter sales of $32.2 billion beat analysts’ estimates. That has boosted investor confidence, sending Meta’s share price up nearly 45% so far this year — adding about $19.1 billion to Zuckerberg’s net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Zuckerberg derives most of his wealth from a 13% stake in Meta, according to Bloomberg.
