Thousands Of Meta Workers Receive Poor Performance Ratings, Signaling Potential Layoffs: Report

Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc META has reportedly given poor ratings to thousands of employees in the company's latest performance reviews. 

The leadership team at Meta "expects the ratings to lead more employees to leave in the coming weeks, and it would consider another round of layoffs if not enough depart," the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The company has given subpar reviews or the rating of "meets most" to almost 10% of its workforce, which is the second-lowest performance rating. However, the WSJ reports that the lowest rating "meets some" is rare. 

Workers who receive two "meets most" ratings in a row are placed on performance improvement plans, and those who receive ratings lower than that are automatically placed on an improvement plan, according to people at the company, per WSJ. 

"Within Meta, some employees take such a rating as a sign to look for new work opportunities," the report cites sources.

Meta has also slashed a key bonus metric, which was part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's overall strategy of making 2023 Meta's "year of efficiency."

Also Read: Mark Zuckerberg's Security Allowance Just Went Up 40% Amid Meta's Massive Job Cuts 

"We have always had a goal-based culture of high performance, and our review process is intended to incentivize long-term thinking and high-quality work while helping employees get actionable feedback," a company spokesperson said. 

Last week, the company hinted at another round of job cuts as it delayed finalizing the budgets of multiple teams. This comes after the social media giant announced 11,000 job cuts, or 13% of its total workforce, last November. 

Zuckerberg has said that he's not in favor of having layers of management in the company. "I don't think you want a management structure that's just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work," he stated. 

The Meta CEO has indicated that the company expects to end 2023 as "roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.

Earlier this month, Meta reported fourth-quarter financial results and first-quarter guidance.

Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Quintano on Flickr