On May 20th, Facebook's parent company Meta officially launched a large-scale layoff, with approximately 8000 positions to be cut.
Meta currently has 78000 employees, and about 10% of them have received layoff notices. According to an internal memo sent to the employee support group by Janet Gail, the HR director of Meta, on Monday, the company issued layoff notices to employees in different regions of the world in three batches at 4am local time on May 20th. At present, employees in the compliance risk control, network security, and content design departments have been affected.
According to internal documents obtained by Business Insider, laid-off employees in the US region can receive severance pay, which includes 16 weeks (four months) of basic salary and an additional two weeks of salary for each year of continuous employment. The laid-off employees and their families can enjoy a medical insurance coverage of 18 months, which is three times longer than before. Employees who leave outside the United States will also receive similar compensation plans, with specific standards varying depending on their country of residence.
As a comparison, financial technology company Block previously offered 20 weeks of salary to departing employees during layoffs, with an additional week of salary for each year of service, and provided six months of medical insurance; Amazon provides three months of full salary and medical insurance benefits, as well as additional severance pay, to departing employees.
Janet Gale also mentioned in the memo that the company will reduce management positions across the board and implement a flat organizational structure. She wrote, "Nowadays, most business departments can adopt a more streamlined and flat structure, forming small specialized work teams to improve operational efficiency and strengthen employees' awareness of rights and responsibilities
An internal message shows that employees in the US region received a notice to work from home on Wednesday of this week. In an internal meeting last month, Gail admitted that the upcoming layoffs have severely impacted employee morale, and the company is doing its best to handle the situation in the best possible way.
Since Meta announced on April 23rd that it will soon begin layoffs, all employees of the company have been in a state of panic. At that time, the company stated in an internal memo that the layoffs were aimed at improving operational efficiency and balancing various business investments. Meta also plans to deploy over 7000 employees to engage in new business projects related to artificial intelligence. The management of each department will simultaneously announce the organizational restructuring plan during this layoff announcement.
Meta is currently investing heavily in the field of artificial intelligence, and the company estimated in April that its capital expenditure by 2026 will reach $125 billion to $145 billion (with a current exchange rate of approximately 852.591 billion to RMB 989.005 billion).
Previously, Meta management made it clear to employees that the 10% layoff this Wednesday is not the end of the line, and they do not rule out further reductions in staffing in the future.
