There are high chances that Facebook’s parent company Meta will go through another round of layoffs in 2023. In the company’s fourth quarter earnings release on Wednesday, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the 'year of efficiency,' and said that the management is focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organisation.
Zuckerberg described the focus on efficiency as part of the natural evolution of the company, calling it a "phase change" for an organisation that once lived by the motto "move fast and break things."
"We just grew so quickly for like the first 18 years," Zuckerberg said in a conference call. "It's very hard to really crank on efficiency while you're growing that quickly. I just think we're in a different environment now."
Hinting towards more job cuts, Zuckerberg in the earnings announcement said “We may incur additional restructuring charges as we progress further in our efficiency efforts."
Further in the earnings call he added that Meta Platforms will cut some layers of middle management amid a companywide effort to reduce costs and increase “efficiency.”
“We’re going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial, but my main focus is on increasing the efficiency of how we execute our top priorities,” Zuckerberg said.
In November 2022, Meta said it was cutting more than 11,000 roles that is 13 percent of its staff. Zuckerberg took accountability for the decision and said the firm overhired during the COVID-19 pandemic amid predictions of continued surge of e-commerce. “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,” he said.
The company in its earnings report noted that it spent over $3.7 billion on restructuring efforts in 2022. This included severance payouts for employees, as well as the early termination of some of its office leases and the consolidation of its offices.
Zuckerberg also commented on the issue of layoffs during Meta's earnings call.
"We closed last year with some difficult layoffs and when we did this, I said clearly that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency and not the end," Zuckerberg said. He further added that the company plans to equip engineers with more AI tools.
Last month in an internal employee Q&A Zuckerberg said managers should not be rewarded for creating larger teams. "I don't think you want a management structure that's just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work," he said, according to a weekly newsletter Command Line from The Verge.
