Zuckerberg Targets Underperformers: Inside Meta's Latest 5% Workforce Cut

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, is planning to slash around 5% of its workforce, targeting underperformers. However, the company plans to rehire the impacted positions later this year.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said this move is part of a broader scheme to "raise the bar" on performance management, cautioning that more job cuts are underway, Reuters reported.

Warning employees of a potential "intense year" of 2025, Zuckerberg said in a memo posted on the company's internal workplace forum on Tuesday that the employees affected by the downsizing will be intimated by Feb. 10. The memo said that the employees will receive severance package consistent with Meta's tradition, CNBC reported.

According to Meta's most recent quarterly report, the social media firm has more than 72,000 employees. The cuts represent Meta's largest layoffs since it cut 21,000 jobs, or nearly a quarter of its workforce, in 2022 and 2023.

Bloomberg was the first to report the news, citing the internal memo.

"The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech, so we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our polices and restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg said in a video announcement.

"Meta is working on building some of the most important technologies in the world. AI, glasses as the next computing platform, and the future of social media. This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams," Zuckerberg said in the internal memo obtained by CNBC.

"I've decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster. We typically manage out people who aren't meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we're going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle, with the intention of back filling these roles in 2025. We won't manage out everyone who didn't meet expectations for the last period if we're optimistic about their future performance, and for those we do let go, we'll provide generous severance in line with what we provided with previous cuts," the memo said.

Meta has been breaking notable ground lately, joining the bandwagon of large tech companies like CISCO and IBM to pump billions into building AI-related infrastructure. This investment will likely raise its expenditures this year.

Zuckerberg said last month that Meta is discontinuing its third-party fact-checking program in favor of a "Community Notes" model, which is comparable to Elon Musk's X. The foundation of the "Community Notes" methodology is the idea of a community-driven vetting procedure to give posts more context.