Social media and metaverse company Meta will join the growing list of tech companies making large employee layoffs on Wednesday (Nov. 9).
In a Tuesday (Nov. 8) meeting with executives, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is at fault for the company’s missteps due to his “over-optimism about growth” resulting in overstaffing of the company, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Zuckerberg spotlighted the recruiting and business arms of the company as among those facing cutbacks. Currently, Meta has approximately 87,000 employees.
Lori Goler, Meta’s head of human resources, said that a four-month salary severance will be provided to employees who lose their jobs as a result of the staff cuts.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the company will release a general internal announcement of the full plan at 6 a.m. EST on Wednesday.
The news comes after the company’s rocky Oct. 26 earnings results, which revealed that the social media giant’s net income had dropped 52% while spending had risen 19%.
Meta’s planned layoffs will be the first time in its 18-year history that the company is cutting down its staff to such a degree.
During a September Q&A session with employees, Zuckerberg foreshadowed the move, saying the firm was planning to slash budgets for most of its teams.
“I had hoped the economy would have more clearly stabilized by now,” Zuckerberg said at the time. “But from what we’re seeing, it doesn’t yet seem like it has, so we want to plan somewhat conservatively.”
The layoffs represent the largest round of cutbacks at a Big Tech company, surpassing the recent 3,700 people let go by Twitter, a result of Elon Musk taking over the company and looking to reshape its direction going forward.
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