After a ‘year of efficiency’, Meta cuts staff again in WhatsApp, Instagram and Threads
17 October 2024 15:23
Meta has started new layoffs in various departments, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Reality Labs. These are not massive layoffs across the company, but rather small reductions related to the reorganisation of specific teams. The move comes after CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared 2023 the “year of efficiency,” according to "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to The Verge.
Some Meta employees have already published information about their dismissal. One of them is Jane Manchun Wong, who gained fame for reporting new features in apps before their official release and joined the Threads team in 2023.
“I’m still trying to process it, but I’ve been informed that my role at Meta is being scaled back. Thank you to everyone, especially my colleagues at Threads and Instagram, for this exciting journey at the company. If anyone is interested in working together, especially in software development or security, please contact me via my personal website, email, or LinkedIn,”
– Wong wrote.
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The company explained the layoffs as traditional optimisation.
“Today, several teams at Meta are undergoing changes to ensure that resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals… This includes relocating some teams to other locations and changing the positions of individual employees. In situations where [their] role is no longer required, we are making every effort to find other opportunities for those employees,”
– Dave Arnold, a spokesman for the company, told The Verge.
The new wave of layoffs is a continuation of the cuts in the Reality Labs division that took place earlier this year. For the first time, Meta laid off 11,000 employees in 2022 due to overoptimism about the company’s growth after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, it was announced that another 10,000 employees would be laid off as part of Mark Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency”.
The company’s optimisation is probably really necessary – the European Union recently fined Meta €91 million for improper password storage.
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