Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the company that owns Facebook , Instagram as well as WhatsApp, is at it again cutting down its employee workforce. The firm dismissed 1,100 employees in 2022 and another 10,000 in early 2023. Now it’s back again to leave in more numbers. Groups in WhatsApp, Instagram, and Threads are among the departments that have been affected; the company has brought forward the reshuffle as a long-term strategic plan.
A New Reshuffle, a New Farewell
It emerged when Jane Manchun Wong, a Meta employee, posted about it on Threads. It is great news,” she said, though she remained quite confused by the news that she had received. Wong is grateful for her coworkers and invited everyone to connect with her via email or on LinkedIn if they would like to work together.
Meta’s spokesman Dave Arnold acknowledged the firings and said that such measures are in line with the company’s development plan. Some are moving to other workplaces or have been promoted to other positions while for the others the process involves dismissal from the company. The number of employees who have been positioned is still unknown, and people just guess, to what extent these measures can be deep.
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, suggested earlier this year that further changes were on the way. In his commentary back in March 2023 he said that this company’s goal was to become ‘thinner’, which, apparently, means that employing fewer people makes the business nimbler and more efficient. Morgan had said that work completes faster when there are fewer people and it is enjoyable and rewarding.
All these dismissals appear to fit within Zuckerberg’s long-term vision to streamline Meta. But more semantically, Meta is straightening up, except for the fact that instead of repainting and rearranging old chairs and tables, so to speak, it is relocating human beings. Although the company claims it’s searching for new positions for these workers, it isn’t always the case.
What’s Next for Meta?
From the employees perspective, all of that looks like an episode of a television series where they were suddenly moved to another show. For this reason, it can only be acknowledged that even such crucial teams as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads are also affected by the layoffs. The tech industry in particular appears to be recalibrating a little, like Meta which is now more about productivity than expansion.
Both liquidity and regulatory considerations are difficult to predict and may well require more reorganization among Meta’s businesses in the future. Whether they will increase efficiency and make the company ‘more fun’ as Zuckerberg put it, is yet to be determined. One thing is clear: Meta will continue to grow, and it’s ready to let go of employees if needed to do so.
Meanwhile the employees such as Wong who have been affected get in touch knowing more and focusing on looking for a new job and relying on contacts. These former Meta workers are free to chart their new courses, and the message is always the same: every time a door is closed, another one is opened somewhere else.
So, what’s the takeaway here? Meta’s latest round of layoffs might be less extensive, but it still feels as real for everyone who loses their job.
