Facebook’s parent company Meta is prepping for another potentially devastating round of layoffs as it gathers human resource managers, executives, lawyers and financial experts to formulate and execute even more job cuts in 2023.
Less than four months ago, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered the unfortunate news to employees that the company would be cutting 11,000 jobs as it looked to shed about 13 percent of its workforce.
The move to cut 11,000 jobs back in November 2022 was heralded by Zuckerberg as a necessary gutting to prevent further substantial layoffs in the future.
However, The Washington Post is reporting that as soon as March 2023, Meta could be set to trim another significant portion of employees from its employment roster.
According to The Washington Post’s sources, Meta is looking to flatten the company’s org chart and plans to shift some current executives into lower-level positions with the intent of having information and reporting flowing less incumbered by bureaucracy to Zuckerberg.
A couple of offshoots of the new plan could result in managers overseeing larger employee pools as well as newly converted jobs put up on the chopping block for shedding.
While Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold offered no comment on the matter to the Washington Post, Zuckerberg later attempted to clarify what he said back in November 2022 with the following,
We closed last year with some difficult layoffs and restructuring some teams,” Zuckerberg told investors earlier this month. “When we did this, I said clearly that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end.
Zuckerberg’s emphasis on making the company more efficient has led some to believe that job cuts could end up being disproportionally applied to non-engineer positions such as marketing, sales, PR, and potentially moderation. Sources claim executives will use a range of factors to determine which employees and positions to axe that include performance ratings, compensation packages and job duties.
Meta is in perhaps the largest transitional phase the nascent company has experienced since its core-reorganization back in 2021. As advertising revenue steadily declines and the big blue Facebook app becomes less relevant in the shadow of competitors such as TikTok, Meta could see itself making another similar announcement in another few months.