Twitter is not the only company with massive layoffs. Facebook or Meta is said to have fired more than 11,000 employees and gone on a hiring freeze globally.
According to CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta aims to “become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.” In a letter to those affected, Zuckerberg details what each fired Facebook US staff will be getting as severance as follows:
- Severance. We will pay 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap.
- PTO*. We’ll pay for all remaining PTO time.
- RSU* vesting. Everyone impacted will receive their November 15, 2022 vesting.
- Health insurance. We’ll cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.
- Career services. We’ll provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.
- Immigration support. I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need.
What happens to other nationalities and remote workers?
While the company says each affected staff will get the opportunity to speak to someone to have their questions answered, non-US Facebook staff who worked physically could be the worst hit as this could mean they return to their home countries jobless. On the remote side of things, Zuckerberg says staff outside the US will get similar support as listed above, and that the company will follow up with separate processes that take into account local employment laws.
These layoffs could signal shutting down physical office spaces globally. Zuckerberg admits in the letter that the layoffs will add up to a meaningful cultural shift in how Meta operates as they will be shrinking their real estate footprint.
Why were they even laid off?
In October of this year, Meta’s forecast painted a disappointing quarter and indicated significantly more costs next year, wiping about $67 billion off the company’s stock market value. This is in addition to the over half a trillion dollars in value already lost this year.
The disappointing outlook comes as Meta is contending with many other factors like global economic recession, competition from TikTok, privacy changes from Apple which has affected advertising, massive spending on the Metaverse project and the most daunting; regulation.
While Zuckerberg has said he expects the Metaverse investments to take about a decade to bear fruit, the unaffected will have to deal with fewer hands and some uncertainty about their future.
*PTO – Paid time off
*RSU – Restricted Stock Units RSUs are stocks that do not fully belong to the employee until they are vested. During the vesting period, the stock cannot be sold.
