Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), faced tough questions from employees during an hour-long all-hands meeting on Thursday, just two days after the company announced that it will cut 10,000 jobs as part of a downsizing and restructuring effort. During the meeting, one employee asked how workers are supposed to trust the company’s leadership after two rounds of layoffs. Zuckerberg responded by saying that leaders should be allowed to change their thinking and that he expects to be evaluated based on the company’s performance and transparency about its mission.
Zuckerberg also addressed the company’s decision to restructure and lay off workers just four months after he told employees that he didn’t anticipate having to make those kinds of cuts again in the foreseeable future. He explained that he changed his thinking because he believes that the overall economic pressures facing the company will be around for a while and that the November layoffs seemed to boost the company’s efficiency.
The latest round of layoffs comes as Meta faces increasing competition for advertising dollars and users from newer social media platforms such as TikTok. The company has also acknowledged that it overestimated how much the e-commerce market would grow after pandemic-era restrictions were lifted. Zuckerberg had previously declared that 2023 would be the “year of efficiency” for the company, following a period of declining revenue.
The latest layoffs build on the November workforce cuts that saw 11,000 jobs slashed, or about 13% of Meta’s workforce, in the first widespread layoffs in the company’s history. In his remarks during the meeting, Zuckerberg reiterated his commitment to the company’s mission and said that the changes were necessary to ensure that Meta can continue to make progress and achieve its goals.
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