This year has seen a number of tech companies, including Microsoft and Twitter, get hit with an abundance of layoffs, and it seems unfortunately Meta has now followed suit.
This has been a rough year for companies. It seems time passing and losing gratuitous amounts of a company’s workforce are mutually exclusive, as Meta, one of the most profitable companies since launching back in 2004, has now cut its workforce by 13%.
To set this reality in stone, CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg penned a letter to employees with the sentiment “this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.” The most important part of the layoff letter, especially to those affected by the news, sent out by Meta reads as follows:
There is no good way to do a layoff, but we hope to get all the relevant information to you as quickly as possible and then do whatever we can to support you through this.
Everyone will get an email soon letting you know what this layoff means for you. After that, every affected employee will have the opportunity to speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions.
Some of the details in the US include:
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 We’ll provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.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.
Mark Zuckerberg Layoff Message To Employees
While layoffs have been happening to MANY companies for the past few months, Meta has outlined the severance details day one, but they have also cut ties with the former employees almost instantly as well, cutting the former employees out of most corporate functions quickly. Meta did leave their corporate emails open for the final day “so everyone can say farewell.”
This has been a sad year for workers in the tech industry. G4’s failure to launch a second time, Microsoft, and GameStop have shown the volatility in the space recently, and Meta is just the latest company to ‘cut costs’ for shareholders. Since the layoffs, Meta’s stock price has already risen by nearly 8%.
The layoffs are expected to affect over 10,000 employees. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” Zuckerberg has said regarding the layoffs. The open Facebook employee letter can be read in its entirety here.
