'creating Fear': Meta Began Laying Off 'low Performers' On Monday. Here's A Look At How Those Decisions Are Made.

Meta has started performance-based layoffs affecting 5% of its 72,000-person workforce aliases astir 3,600 world employees.

Laid-off U.S.-based Meta labour were notified connected Monday, February 10 astatine 5 a.m. PT via an email sent to their activity and individual email addresses. Employees successful Europe and Asia were notified nan clip prior.

The Information reports that laid-off labour mislaid entree to Meta's psyche systems incorrect an hr and learned astir their severance packages via email. Two sources told Business Insider that U.S. workers received a severance package that includes 16 weeks of pay, affirmative 2 weeks for each twelvemonth astatine nan company. The package is identical to nan 1 received by Google labour successful January 2023 erstwhile Google eliminated 12,000 positions.

Related: Meta Informs Staff that Layoffs Will Begin Monday Morning successful a Now-Leaked Internal Memo

How Does Meta Identify 'Low Performers'

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced nan layoffs done an psyche memo successful January, stating that nan cuts would target "low performers."

Meta's layoffs target labour who received debased scores successful their capacity reviews aft only gathering immoderate aliases nary of their business goals. BI reports that Meta managers personification to springiness 12% to 15% of their squad small rankings and, successful immoderate cases, are forced to spot squad members into small categories to meet nan target.

It's unclear who was laid disconnected and from which departments.

"Mark is creating fear," 1 Meta worker told BI. "He's creating a civilization wherever you personification to beryllium loyal to him aliases else."

One Meta worker told BI that labeling nan layoffs performance-based could harm nan reputations of affected employees.

"Now group personification to spell backmost retired into nan business marketplace pinch a mentation that is incredibly unfair," they stated.

Related: Meta Reminds Staff of Its Strict No-Leaks Policy — That Has Since Been Leaked to nan Press

One worker impacted by nan layoffs, Brittney Ball, took to X to banal nan news. She explained that she was fto spell aft 5 years astatine Meta and outlined six reasons why companies should prosecute her, including that she had helped complete 3,000 group break into tech.

Justin Allen, a elder personification acquisition designer astatine Oculus Studios, posted connected LinkedIn connected Monday that he was impacted by nan layoffs while Meta method recruiter Carl Wheatley posted connected nan aforesaid level that he knew recruiters and merchandise designers who were fto spell too.

— Brii (she/her) ????✊??? (@Brii_toe_knee) February 10, 2025