Meta, the parent company of the renowned social media platform Facebook, will begin a significant round of layoffs today, potentially affecting approximately 4,000 employees. Per Vox, this latest round of downsizing won’t be limited to just Facebook but is expected to also impact various technical teams across other Meta-owned platforms such as Instagram, Reality Labs, and WhatsApp.
This decision comes on the heels of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement in March, where he stated that the company would trim its workforce by an additional 10,000 jobs in the near future, in addition to the 11,000 job cuts that were already implemented in November 2022.
It remains unclear which African countries will be affected, if any, despite the company having offices in South Africa and Nigeria where some of its engineers work. Lori Goler, Meta’s head of people, mentioned in the memo about the layoff that “some countries will not be impacted” but did not specify further. The memo mentioned that the notice of layoff would be communicated via email. This has left employees in a state of uncertainty, anxiously waiting to possibly receive layoff notifications between 12 and 1 PM WAT today, Wednesday. However, the uncertainty does not end here, as Meta has also planned another round of cuts for May, which will impact the business side of the company.
Like other major tech companies, Meta is undertaking rigorous cost-cutting measures. These workforce reductions are a strategic component of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for a “year of efficiency” in 2023. In a Facebook post in February, Zuckerberg wrote, “Over the next couple of months, org leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs, cancelling lower priority projects, and reducing our hiring rates.”
