Meta, the parent company of social media giant Facebook, is laying off over 11,000 employees. This is a recent development and has been confirmed by Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and owner of Meta. Meta owns some of the largest internet businesses in the world, such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and more. Removing 11,000 employees from the company is almost 13% of the workforce inside it. It is a massive firing by the company and something that it hasn't done before.
Zuckerberg said that he is "sorry" for such a move. "I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted," said Zuckerberg, who is also the CEO of Meta.
The reason for such a large-scale decision is that the business is not doing so well. He said that the e-commerce trends have returned to how things were before the pandemic, and it is what the company got wrong. Many thought that the revenue growth that was seen during the pandemic would continue to take place, but that didn't happen.
“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” Zuckerberg said.
Meta wants to restructure the teams and focus more on the resources that are making money for the company fast. The company is scaling back budgets, reducing its real estate footprint and employee perks. These measures were apparently not enough to keep the money in check. It is a sad day for a company such as Meta, which has employed people from all over the world.
It remains to be seen the kind of impact this decision will have in the Indian offices of Meta-owned companies. But the employees who are fired will be given a severance package by the company. Meta will give the affected employees 16 weeks of base pay along with two additional weeks of pay for every year they worked in the company. Employees on visas will also be given immigration support.
The PTO will be covered for the employees who are fired for the remaining time as well as their health insurance will also be paid by Meta for the next six months. The company will also help with employees find new jobs with three months of career support.
