Meta's "year of efficiency" might not be so efficient after all.
The Menlo Park-based tech giant is currently suffering from a lack of clarity just before the upcoming layoffs, meaning that some staff is being paid to do absolutely nothing.
Meta is reportedly planning on conducting layoffs again in the next few weeks to reduce its workforce and improve its profitability following its sudden growth during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meta Layoffs And 'No Work' Employees
While Meta is gearing up for another round of layoffs, two employees familiar with the situation revealed to the Financial Times that Meta's plan might be "wrecking havoc with the productivity of some of its teams." This chaos caused by the impending layoffs resulted in a lack of clarity about the future headcount in recent weeks and some budgets - something that would typically get finalized by the end of the year.
As a result, projects and decisions that usually take only a few days or so to sign off are taking about a month to be accomplished. Due to this delay, some staff members are being paid to do nothing because managers have yet to plan their schedules.
One employee commented on the irony of the situation, saying that Meta's year of efficiency's early days started with some people getting paid to do nothing.
Meta CEO previously admitted that he overestimated the boom in e-commerce and had to cut jobs as a "last resort," according to Business Insider. You may remember he first started halting recruitment campaigns in May 2022 due to missed revenue targets, which turned into layoffs later in November 2022 - something that Zuckerberg told employees at Meta through a message to employees.
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According to the Meta CEO, the layoffs he executed in November were "some of the most difficult changes" they've ever made in the company's history.
With the layoffs not stopping anytime soon, Meta is now aiming for efficiency to better structure itself in a "post-pandemic" world, going so far as to ask managers and directors to work in individual roles or leave the company, per Bloomberg. According to Zuckerberg, flattening Meta's organizational structure and removing some layers of middle management will make decisions faster.
Interestingly, Meta's layoffs and cost-cutting effort are bearing fruit, with the company beating estimates of its fourth-quarter sales, which amounts to $32.2 billion, boosting investor confidence and boosting the company's share prices by up to 45%.
Meta"s Not The Only One
Regardless of these results, Meta is not the only one laying off its employees. Many companies in the tech sector have been giving the axe to employees to help them become profitable again after COVID-19 restrictions loosened.
For instance, Yahoo announced it would be laying off more than 1,600 of its employees to help the company turn a profit. Zoom, the video conference app that rose to popularity during the pandemic, is planning to initiate a round of layoffs affecting 1,300 of its employees.
ABC News mentioned that many tech companies often cited economic uncertainty and recession fears in their layoffs and cost-cutting decisions.
Related Article: Meta Will Be Conducting Layoffs Again in the Next Few Weeks
