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Facebook parent Meta is preparing for a new round of job cuts, hiring human resources, lawyers, finance experts and top executives to come up with plans to drain the company’s hierarchy as part of a restructuring and downsizing that could affect thousands of workers.
Meta plans to push some executives into lower-level roles with no direct reports, Flattening of management levels between Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s interns, According to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak about internal affairs. Other managers may oversee larger numbers of employees as their teams grow. Some within Meta are expecting employees whose positions have been converted eventually resigned and reduced the company’s workforce by default.
In addition to targeting managers, the company is also considering more traditional cuts, including cutting some projects and positions, the person said. This effort, aimed at departments across the company and around the world, may not happen in a single day, but will likely expand across the company in the coming months.
Meta spokesman Dave Arnold declined to comment, but referred the Washington Post to earlier public comments by Zuckerberg that he said the company needs to become more efficient.
“We ended the last year with some difficult layoffs and restructuring of some teams,” Zuckerberg told investors earlier this month. “As we did this, I made it clear that this is the beginning of our focus on efficiency, not the end.”
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The job cuts come after Zuckerberg tried to reassure workers that he “didn’t expect any more layoffs” after the company cut 11,000 jobs — about 13 percent of its workforce — in November. At the time, Zuckerberg told remaining employees the company had taken a significant cut to “minimize the likelihood of having to make large-scale layoffs like this one for the foreseeable future,” according to a recording of the company-wide meeting verified by The Washington Post .
“Obviously I can’t sit here and promise you nothing will happen going forward because it’s a very volatile environment,” he added. “But what I can say is that for the moment that we’re in, I foresee that.”
But earlier this month, Zuckerberg proclaimed 2023 the “Year of Efficiency” and promised investors he would cut middle management and speed up the company’s decision-making, hinting at the possibility of further cuts.
Meta-executives look at the cheapest way to get the most important tasks done, the person said. The cuts are expected to disproportionately hit workers in non-technical roles, they added, and managers will use a wide range of factors, including performance evaluations, job duties and compensation, to identify areas where cuts need to be made.
In addition to downsizing, Meta has also reshuffled its top executives. Earlier this month, Marne Levine, Meta’s Chief Business Officer, announced that she was leaving the company after 13 years. The company said Vice Presidents Nicola Mendelsohn and Justin Osofsky would assume expanded roles overseeing Meta’s advertising and sales departments. They will report to Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan, who took over the role following the departure of former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg last year.
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Meta’s latest cost-cutting efforts are part of a larger wave of tech companies that have been cutting jobs in recent months. Last month, Google’s parent company Alphabet announced it would cut 12,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce. Microsoft also recently announced it would cut 10,000 employees, while Amazon said it will cut 18,000 employees. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post).
Meta’s advertising-based business has been particularly hard hit by a steady stream of economic challenges. Some digital advertisers have cut spending as inflation continues to create market instability while the company overestimates the future growth of the e-commerce market. Meta was also hit when Apple rolled out new privacy restrictions that forced app makers to explicitly ask users to track their online activity, hurting the social media giant’s ability to offer targeted advertising.
Meta is also increasingly fending off competition for marketing dollars and users from emerging social media competitors like short-form video network TikTok. Last year, the company reported that Facebook’s flagship app was losing daily users for the first time in its 18-year history, though user growth later recovered. Earlier this month, Meta posted its third straight quarterly revenue decline in the final months of 2022.
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On Sunday, Zuckerberg unveiled a new subscription service that requires users to pay $11.99 or $14.99 per month to have their accounts verified and access customer support. The company plans to launch the service in Australia and New Zealand this week.
Meanwhile, Meta’s long-term bet on building immersive digital worlds known as the Metaverse is still losing money. The social media giant said last year it expects Reality Labs, the in-house division that oversees its virtual reality devices like its Quest headsets, to lose more money this year than it did last year. Meta will face stiff competition with the announced upcoming release of a competing headset from Apple.