Mark Zuckerberg warned employees to prepare for an ‘intense year.’ He just laid off 3,600 workers—including some who claim they got glowing reviews

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Mark Zuckerberg warned employees to prepare for an ‘intense year.’ He just laid off 3,600 workers—including some who claim they got glowing reviews

In mid-January,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

CEO

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

he had “decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster,” and planned to cut about 5% of his workforce. At the time, Zuckerberg made it sound as if it would just be low performers who would be affected by the layoffs.

“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year,” he said in an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. “But now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

But now, some workers who claim they received favorable performance reviews and were otherwise not the lowest performers have gotten caught up in the cuts, which

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and impacted about 3,600 workers.

One Meta employee posted on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

on Monday she was laid off after receiving an “exceeds expectations” rating on her midyear review.

“I frequently asked for feedback and was always told I was doing a good job,” Kaila Curry, an ex-content manager at Meta, wrote in the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. “I was never placed on a PIP [performance improvement plan], never given corrective feedback, and never properly mentored or provided clear expectations. I simply put in the work… I am not a low performer.”

Another ex-Meta employee who was laid off said the company’s assertion it’s cutting the dead wood is “flat-out wrong.”

“I was let go today—but not because I was a ‘low performer,’”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Steven S., a former product designer for

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. “Let’s be clear: that label is misleading, and for many of us, it’s flat-out wrong.” This user didn’t mention or show what rating he received on the performance review.

However, it’s unclear what Meta qualifies as a “low performer.” The company didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

Business Insider also spoke with several Meta employees who had been affected by the layoffs and spoke on the condition of anonymity. They said they had received an “at or above expectations” rating on their 2024 assessments, which would rank them as mid-tier employees at Meta, not low performers.

“The hardest part is Meta publicly stating they’re cutting low performers, so it feels like we have the scarlet letter on our backs,” one employee told Business Insider. “People need to know we’re not underperformers.”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, executive director of Fortune Live Media, also called out Zuckerberg’s labeling of Meta’s most recently laid-off employees as low-performing.

Story Continues

“There’s something to be said for letting people leave with their dignity intact rather than branding them as subpar performers,” Brady wrote in her

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

on Tuesday. “Companies that celebrate and support former employees tend to create more fans than foes.”

These layoffs come on the heels of Zuckerberg’s declared “

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

” in 2023 when he announced plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs. He insisted, though, that the latest round of layoffs was different and would only impact the lowest-performing employees in an effort to keep Meta’s “strongest talent” and ability to “bring new people in.” Meanwhile, Meta has expedited hiring for machine-learning engineers,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, as the company continues to build out AI features.

“From a hiring standpoint, our focus continues to be on adding technical talent to support our strategic priorities,” Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said during a Jan. 29 call with investors.

For now, affected Meta employees will continue to question why they were let go.

“Maybe I ‘

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

‘ (to quote Mark Zuckerberg himself),” Curry wrote. “Who knows?”

This story was originally featured on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Mark #Zuckerberg #warned #employees #prepare #intense #year #laid #workersincluding #claim #glowing #reviews

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up