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Meta to Layoff Another 10,000 Workers

edited March 2023 in Other Investing
Zuckerberg has dubbed 2023, the "year of efficiency." Isn't it nice the euphemisms we now have for taking away people's livelihoods? I'm surprised he didn't use the words "right-sizing the labor force" as opposed to downsizing, or "rationalizing" head counts, "restructuring," or, my favorite, "synergies" after a merger:

https://nytimes.com/2023/03/14/technology/meta-facebook-layoffs.html

https://cnn.com/2023/03/14/tech/meta-layoffs/index.html

Comments

  • msf
    edited March 2023
    I saw that too. Perhaps he drew his inspiration from here:
    In interviews with [Business] Insider, founders and investors acknowledge privately that they are looking to Twitter as a case study of efficiency. (All spoke on the condition of anonymity, to avoid a backlash from their employees.) If Musk can run his social network on half of its previous staff, they say, perhaps their companies can, too. "It's not a bad look to make the tough call, because everyone is making the tough call," says the founder of a large startup whose investors are urging him to cut the fat and slow hiring. "Elon is the most extreme example of that so far, but this is what a lot of smart companies are doing."
    https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-hardcore-twitter-culture-inspires-fellow-tech-founders-2022-12
  • I heard on NPR that “ meta” doubled its workforce during the pandemic. To me this seems irresponsible ( like a lot of other things about “meta,” starting with its CEO)

    Didnt it occur to them that the pandemic would not last forever, and their payroll would have to drop back to more normal levels? What kinds promises about tenure and job security did the recruiters offer these new hires? Looks like “meta” wants just “gig” workers. MSFT got shot down when they tried to label people “ independent contractors “, didnt they?
  • Didnt it occur to them that the pandemic would not last forever, and their payroll would have to drop back to more normal levels?

    NPR's "doubling" figure likely represented the growth of full-time employees from 2019 (44,942) through 2022 (86,482). Data from Statistia. Confirmed by WP:
    Between the end of 2019 and its peak headcount in 2022, the company nearly doubled in size to some 87,000 employees.
    Data from Statista. Sometimes Statista provides full data w/o subscribing, sometimes not. So here's the data it presented me:

    2004: 7
    2005: 15
    2006: 150
    2007: 450
    2008: 850
    2009: 1,218
    2010: 2,127
    2011: 3,200
    2012: 4,619
    2013: 6,337
    2014: 9,199
    2015: 12,691
    2016: 17,048
    2017: 25,105
    2018: 35,537
    2019: 44,942
    2020: 56,604
    2021: 71,970
    2022: 86:482
    https://www.statista.com/statistics/273563/number-of-facebook-employees/

    Rolling three year hiring rates:
    2007: 64x (2004-2007, 450/7)
    2008: 57x
    2009: 8x
    2010: 5x
    2011: 4x
    2012: 4x
    2013: 3x
    2014: 3x
    2015: 3x
    2016: 3x
    2017: 3x
    2018: 3x
    2019: 3x (2.64)
    2020: 2x (2.25)
    2021: 2x (2.03)
    2022: 2x (1.92)

    Seems pretty "normal" to me. That last hiring rate was not out of line. The rate was not due to the pandemic, but during the pandemic. Parts of the WP piece support the idea that this has to do with tech sector hubris.
    The [Meta] hiring sustained its ambitious (and in some cases seemingly ill-fated) projects like its big bet on the metaverse. ...

    [T]he deep cuts ... reflect a deeper shift in thinking about the metrics that matter in a tech sector that has long been able to make up its own rules.

    During the pandemic, as tech CEOs accelerated their empire building, a massive and growing headcount somehow became equated with a company’s overall health — a sign that it had cash, clout and big ambitions.
    that it had cash - cross check that with SVB and why startups were pulling cash out of their bank accounts. Their cash spigots were drying up.
  • @msf

    great analysis! I wonder in addition to new hires how many exisiting employees were sent into the “metaverse” to work and now YukZuk has been forced to swirch gears, those employees are toast.
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