12% of Meta employees dread "quiet layoffs"; 12k might lose jobs

New Delhi: The tech giant Meta is reportedly running "quiet layoffs", causing at least 12,000 employees to lose their jobs. The number is around 15 per cent of Meta's total workforce, IANS reported, citing employees.

A report by Insider state that senior executives are working the "quiet layoffs" by removing underperforming employees.

One employee said that "It might look like they are moving on, but the reality is they are being forced out."

Meta's Facebook had announced a freeze on hiring in May, and employees working on the social media site were dreading the layoffs for months.

Meta's stock price, which approached $380 per share when it was at its peak, took a nosedive of 60 per cent in 2021.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Meta, had stated that Facebook stopped hiring and there would be layoffs too. He had made the same at an internal call for employees, reports suggested.

In the last Meta earnings call, Zuckerberg said, "Our plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year. Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas."

He had expanded the hiring freeze across departments and verticals.

The staff cuts in Meta are attributed to the economic downturn. Many of the employees were put on traditional 30 to 60 days "lists", so they could find a new role within the company or other.

The company has the "long practice" where workers whose roles are eliminated will face termination if they can't find a new job internally within a month.

Zuckerberg admitted that Meta had entered an economic downturn, and the same will impact its digital advertising business. He added that many "teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company".