According to Meta’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, engineers who worked from the social media firm’s offices since 2020 have outperformed the staffers working from remote locations.
In a memo to his employees, the tech billionaire cited the findings from Meta’s preliminary performance data analysis, while announcing the slashing of 10,000 staffers and closing about 5,000 additional positions that the company still needed to hire.
“Our data also reveals that engineers earlier in their career perform better on average when they work in-person with coworkers at least three days a week,” he added.
“Interpersonal ties still facilitate the development of trust and contribute to our ability to do tasks more successfully,” Mark Zuckerberg remarked further.
As part of its “Year of Efficiency,” Meta is putting a lot of effort into ensuring individuals form the connections they need to work productively.
The CEO of Meta added, “In the interim, I encourage all of you to find additional opportunities to work with your coworkers in person.”
He also advised the Meta staffers to prepare for the ‘potential of this new economic reality’, which will last for a considerable time.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, “higher interest rates result in a leaner economy, greater geopolitical unpredictability increases volatility, and more regulation slows the growth and raises the cost of innovation.”
“This outlook means that to succeed; we’ll need to work even harder than before,” he continued.
In light of this ‘new reality’, most businesses will reduce their long-term investments and vision.
“We developed a financial strategy that enables us to make significant investments in the future while also achieving long-term success as long as we operate each team more effectively. We can reach this budgetary plan thanks to the improvements we’re implementing,” he clarified further.
As per the reports, the Facebook parent company will begin its layoffs with the Human Resources and Recruiting teams.
Around 1,500 people from these two departments are expected to be laid off now, reported Bloomberg.
Mark Zuckerberg also stated that the staffers will be informed about the layoffs beforehand. The downsizing of the engineering department is likely to be scheduled in April 2023.
The Meta CEO, while describing the layoff process, stated that it would be done based on employee performance. Meta hit headlines in 2023 beginning when employees shared that a majority of them had received a “sub-par” review.
Meta’s first round of layoffs was held in November 2022 when 11,000 people were fired. This round of downsizing became the biggest ever seen by the tech industry, apart from being the biggest in the tech giant’s 18-year history. The job cuts also reduced the tech giant’s workforce by 13%.