Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing time on November 9 news, Meta layoffs news finally "boots landed." Meta confirmed that 13% of its 87000 employees would be laid off, meaning that more than 11000 people would be laid off. This is the first large-scale layoff in Meta's 18 years and possibly the largest in the technology industry so far this year.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, sent an internal letter to the company announcing the layoffs. In this internal letter, Zuckerberg analyzed how it got to this point. How can layoffs be carried out? What kind of compensation will employees receive? And how the company will develop in the future.

The following is the full text of Zuckerberg's internal letter:

Today, I'm going to share some of the toughest decisions we've made in Meta's history. I have decided to reduce the size of the team by 13% and lay off more than 11000 excellent employees. To make the company leaner and more efficient, we have taken some additional measures by cutting discretionary spending and extending the hiring freeze into the first quarter.

I want to take responsibility for these decisions and how we got here. I know it's hard for everyone, and I'm very sorry for those who have been affected.

How did we get here?

At the beginning of COVID-19, the world quickly turned to the Internet, and the surge of e-commerce brought huge revenue growth. Many predict that this will be a permanent acceleration that will continue even after the end of the pandemic. I think so, too, so I decided to greatly increase our investment. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out as I expected. Not only has e-commerce returned to the previous trend, but also the macroeconomic recession, increased competition and the loss of advertising signals have caused our income to be much lower than I expected. I was wrong. I'm responsible for it.

In this new environment, we need to improve capital efficiency. We have shifted more resources to a few high-priority areas of growth-such as our artificial intelligence engines, advertising and business platforms, as well as our long-term vision for meta-universe. We have cut the cost of the entire business, including cutting budgets, reducing allowances, and reducing our real estate footprint. We are reorganizing the team to improve efficiency. But these measures alone did not bring our spending in line with income growth, so I made the difficult decision to lay off staff.

How will layoffs be carried out?

There is no good way to lay off staff, but we hope to tell you all the relevant information as soon as possible, and then try our best to help you tide over this difficulty.

Everyone will soon receive an email telling you that you have been laid off. After that, each affected employee has the opportunity to talk to others about attending information meetings and answering questions.

Compensation to be received by the laid-off employee:

-severance payment. We will pay a base salary of 16 weeks (four months) plus an additional salary of two weeks for each year of service, with no upper limit

-paid leave (PTO) We will compensate for all the remaining paid vacation time.

-restricted equity (RSU). Everyone affected will receive an equity award on November 15, 2022.

-Health insurance. We will pay the medical expenses of the affected employees and their families for six months

-Medical insurance. We will pay six months' medical expenses for the affected employees and their families.

Career counseling. We will provide three months of professional support to external suppliers, including obtaining unpublished work leads in advance.

-Immigration support. I know that if you are a visa holder, it will be more difficult. Before terminating the employment contract, there will be a notice period and visa grace period, which means that everyone has time to make plans and deal with their immigration status. We have specialized immigration experts to help you and your families according to their needs.

We will provide similar support outside the United States, and we will soon adopt separate procedures to consider local employment laws.

Considering the number of visits to sensitive information, we decided to cancel access to most Meta systems for those who leave today. But we make sure that the e-mail address is valid so that it is convenient for everyone to say goodbye.

While every organization we have in Family of Apps and Reality Labs is laying off staff, some teams will be more affected than others. Recruitment will be disproportionately affected because we plan to recruit fewer people next year. We are also restructuring the business team on a larger scale. This does not mean that the work of these teams is not good enough, but the price we have to pay to move on. Over the next few days, senior executives of each team will arrange time to discuss the impact of layoffs.

The teammates who are about to leave us are talented and passionate, and they have had an important impact on the company. I would like to thank each of you for helping Meta succeed. I'm sure you'll do well elsewhere.

What other changes have we made?

I think layoffs are a last resort, so we decided to control other costs before firing our teammates. Overall, this will bring about a meaningful change in the way we operate. For example, as we shrink office space, we are adjusting people who are out of the office most of the time to share desks. We will introduce more similar cost-cutting reforms in the coming months.

With a few exceptions, we will extend the recruitment freeze to the first quarter. Determine whether and to what extent we should resume hiring by observing our business performance, operational efficiency and other macroeconomic factors. This will enable us to control our cost structure in the face of a continuing economic downturn. It will also put us on a path to a more efficient cost structure than we recently told investors.

I am currently conducting a comprehensive review of our infrastructure spending. When we build our artificial intelligence infrastructure, we focus on improving the efficiency of our capabilities. Our infrastructure will continue to be an important advantage of Meta, and I believe we can achieve this at less cost.

Fundamentally, we make these changes for two reasons: one is that our revenue expectations are lower than we expected at the beginning of the year, and the other is that we want to ensure that both the app family and metasmos operate efficiently.

How do we move forward?

This is a sad moment and there is no other way. For those who are about to leave, I want to thank you again for everything you have done for this place. Without your hard work, we would not be where we are today. I thank you for your contribution.

For those who stay, I know this is a difficult time for you, too. Not only do we have to say goodbye to people who have worked closely together, but many of you also feel uncertain about the future. I want you to know that we have made these decisions to ensure that we have a bright future.

I believe that, as a company, we are seriously undervalued today. Billions of people use our services to connect, and our community is expanding. Our core business is the most profitable and has great potential in history. We are a leader in developing technologies that define future social connections and the next computing platform. We are doing historic work. I am confident that if we work effectively, we will emerge from this recession, stronger and more resilient than ever before.

We will share more details in the coming days, including how we will achieve our priorities as a streamlined organization. Now, once again, I would like to express my gratitude to those who are leaving for all you have done to advance our mission.

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