Facebook to reduce costs, cut more employee benefits

Meta has decided to stop providing employee benefits covering mental well-being and other work-life balance needs. 

The career page of Meta says that previously, the Company was providing Life@benefits perks, which were introduced to ensure that the employees’ “personal and well-being goals” were fulfilled.

However, after this move, the employees will now receive lesser perks in comparison to the beginning of this year, and will continue to receive lesser benefits next year onwards. It is reported that two employees aware of the matter disclosed that they would receive benefits amounting to around $3000 until the end of this year, but expect to see the amount decrease to $2000 next year.

Meta’s spokesperson said that the 2019 employee Life@benefits has been adjusted for 2023. He also added that the 2019 employee benefits were only $750 per year, which is still a significant increase even with the reduction.

Due to slow growth, many tech and IT companies have laid off thousands of employees this year. They have also reduced many employee benefits to save costs. Meta also has been cutting down various employee perks over the last several months to cut costs. In November 2022, Meta laid off 13 per cent of the workforce, because of the continued slow growth, higher interest rate and the fear of possible recession. In addition to that, the Company also removed other employee perks such as on-site laundry services, free food services and Lyft subsidy.

Formerly known as Facebook, Meta is now left with a headcount of around 76,000 in its workforce, post the layoffs last month. This itself will lead to a saving of  about $76 million, as it will cut costs at the rate of about $1000 per employee.