Sixteen weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap is what Meta, the parent company of social-media platform Facebook, is offering to the 11,000 employees it has decided to let go of. That is, around 13 per cent of its employee strength has been rendered jobless.
The retrenchment will happen across Facebook and Instagram.
In a note to the employees, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, said, “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”
He also mentioned that the company is undertaking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending hiring freeze through Q1.
In addition to the severance pay, those impacted will also get paid for the remaining paid-time-off (PTO), if any. The Company will also cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.
Meta will also provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.
Employees who are on a Visa in the US will get time to plan and sort out their immigration status.
“We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency. But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta
“We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need,” Zuckerberg said.
The vesting time for the Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) will be 15 November, as per the Company.
Employees based outside the US will receive similar support. Separate processes will be announced taking into account local employment laws.
The Company also announced that it will be revoking any access to the Meta systems with immediate effect, given the amount of access to sensitive information. However, the email addresses will remain active throughout the day for people to say goodbye and receive farewell messages.
Zuckerberg mentioned that things didn’t go as per plans post the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” he said.
In this new environment, the Company intended to become more capital efficient.
Meta has decided to shift more of its resources onto a smaller number of high-priority growth areas — such as AI discovery engine, ads and business platforms, and long-term vision for the metaverse.
“We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real-estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency. But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go,” Zuckerberg mentioned.
For employees who are left behind or rather those who escaped this layoff, Zuckerberg said, “I want you to know that we’re making these decisions to make sure our future is strong.”
