Meta To Cut About 4,000 Technical Jobs On Facebook And Instagram, Report Says

Meta will lay off about 4,000 employees in a wide range of technical teams this week, including some on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Reality Labs, a new report has claimed.

The company has also reportedly asked North American employees to work from home Wednesday, if applicable, as the company begins to notify affected workers.

"This will be a difficult time as we say goodbye to friends and colleagues who have contributed so much to Meta," Lori Goler, Meta's head of people, said in a memo sent to employees Tuesday, according to Vox. One source told the outlet that the reductions "could be in the range of 4,000 jobs."

Notifications will start rolling out Wednesday, and a wide range of technical teams will be affected, including those working on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Reality Labs, as per sources who spoke with Vox on condition of anonymity for fear of possible professional repercussions.

To give affected employees "space to process the news," Meta has asked workers in North America to work from home Wednesday if their jobs allow for it, the outlet also noted. It is unclear which countries will be affected by Meta's latest layoffs round, but some nations will not be affected.

A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that the memo was sent to employees but declined to comment further, Vox reported.

It is unclear which specific teams will be affected, but an Insider report suggested that the gaming department may be safe for now as the company invests in Metaverse games.

In Reality Labs, the gaming unit is deemed "safe" as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently signaled more interest in developing games for Quest headsets, according to Insider.

Ahead of this month's layoffs, a person familiar with the situation told the Washington Post in February that Meta was planning to push some of its lead roles into lower-level positions in a "flattening" move that could affect thousands of jobs.

The Post also reported that Meta was considering the possible shelving of some projects that could "disproportionately affect workers in non-engineering roles."

Earlier in February, Bloomberg reported that Meta was going through a flattening process wherein managers and directors were being asked to transition to "individual contributor jobs or leave the company." People with knowledge of the matter told the outlet that some Meta employees at the time felt the flattening was necessary, as some managers only had about one or two employees under their wing.

The April cuts came a month after Zuckerberg said the social media giant was expecting "to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people" in the coming months as part of restructuring plans "focused on flattening our orgs, canceling lower priority projects and reducing our hiring rates."

The Facebook co-founder also revealed at the time that restructurings in Meta's "tech groups" were expected late this month, while business groups would see restructurings and layoffs late in May.

"This will be tough and there's no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success," he added.

Employee morale at Meta has been down since the mass layoffs in November 2022 that affected 11,000 employees. Back then, Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees obtained by CNBC that the company had to become "leaner and more efficient," which meant some teams would be reduced "over the next year."

Sources, "who include high-level directors and rank-and-file engineers," told Recode in January of this year that while some employees were open to the changes Meta was undergoing, morale was "lower than in previous years" overall especially due to the layoffs.

Meanwhile, Meta continues to work on other projects even as it pushes through with restructuring.

Earlier last month, the Facebook owner said it was working on a "text sharing" social media network deemed by some as a potential rival to Elon Musk's Twitter.

"We're exploring a standalone, decentralized social network for sharing text updates," Meta said in an emailed statement at the time.

Media reports indicated that Meta's potential Twitter rival could integrate technology that would allow for interoperable connections with Mastodon and other platforms.