Meta to cut 5% of staff as it 'raises the bar on performance management'

Meta is set to cut an estimate of 5% of its global workforce, specifically the company's lowest performing staff. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), boss Mark Zuckerberg informed workers in a memo that he has decided to speed up the company's regular performance-based cuts ahead of an intense year. He reportedly added that Meta would restore the roles in the latter part of 2025.

The company, which employs an estimate of 72,000 people worldwide, did not highlight how the cuts will be dispensed worldwide. Roughly 3,600 people could be affected by the cuts and will receive a generous severance. The latest cuts reportedly follow Meta's 2023 layoffs, when the company let go of about 10,000 positions with an aim to cut costs. Staff based in the United States (US) who are affected by the cuts will be notified by 10 February, while those based outside of the US will be informed at the later date. 

According to a memo reported on Bloomberg, Zuckerberg said he has decided to raise the bar on performance management. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

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MARKETING-INERACTIVE has reached out to Meta for more information. 

The reported cuts come off the heels of Meta's recent scrapping of its fact-checking programme. The move was announced earlier last week and comes amidst a shifting political and social landscape, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying that the company made the decision amidst a desire to embrace free speech.

"We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," he said. "More specifically, here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US."

Once the programme is up and running, Meta won’t write Community Notes or decide which ones show up. These will be written and rated by contributing users, and akin to X, Community Notes will require agreement amongst people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings.

The company is also planning to phase in Community Notes in the US first over the next couple of months, and will continue to improve it over the course of the year.

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