During the limbo, employees have been unsure who to collaborate with, how to shift responsibilities on their teams or who would be cut next, according to current and recently let-go employees, who asked not to be named discussing internal issues. Zuckerberg announced which business units would be impacted weeks ago, leaving workers anxious and demotivated, making up tasks for themselves or avoiding work until there’s a clearer directive, others said.
Fired employees were notified individually by email at 5 a.m. in San Francisco, and Zuckerberg plans to address those now out of a job this morning, one of the people said. In some countries, a large portion of the local workforce has been affected. In Ireland, Meta said Wednesday it expected to eliminate about 490 roles, across several teams including finance, sales, marketing and engineering. The company also earlier cut its whole Instagram presence in London.
Executives have blamed a rush of hiring during the pandemic, when people were stuck at home spending more time online on Meta’s social media platforms and advertising dollars surged. Then last year annual revenue growth declined for the first time as the economy looked less certain and changes by Apple Inc. made digital ads less effective, prompting marketers to pull back spending.