• Meta said in internal memos that it would cut 5% of workers, focusing on its lowest performers.
• Staffers asked how the cuts would work. One criticized the announcement after a "pretty rough" week.
• Some employees questioned the accuracy of internal performance ratings.

Mark Zuckerberg told Meta employees on Tuesday that the company would make "extensive" cuts to low performers, affecting about 5% of the company's workforce. For some staffers, the cuts raised questions about how performance would be measured and concerns about morale.

Employees posted their reactions on an internal message board, seen by Business Insider. Several asked how the cuts would work in practice. While some employees expressed support for raising Meta's standards, others wanted specifics about the process, particularly at a time when Meta is cutting third-party fact-checkers and rolling back DEI policies.

"This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams," Zuckerberg told staffers in a companywide note on Tuesday. He said that while the company would typically remove low performers over the course of a year, it would speed up that process for this review cycle.

A separate memo sent to Meta managers, a copy of which BI reviewed, said the company planned to cut about 5% of its workforce. Meta said in its latest earning report that it employed 72,404 people globally at the end of September, meaning the cuts would be equivalent to about 3,600 roles.

Some employees said they supported the decision to raise the company's standards. One wrote, "I realize there is a need to raise the bar and I absolutely support this." Others wanted to know more about how the cuts would be decided.

"How much of this decision will be based on performance and how much will be based on area of investment," one employee asked. Another asked whether the cuts would affect "exploratory work" at Meta.

"Year of intensity?" another staff member wrote, seemingly a joking reference to Meta's "year of efficiency."

"How will HR determine the level of optimism about someone's future at the company?" another question said, appearing to refer to Zuckerberg's comment that Meta "won't manage out everyone who didn't meet expectations for the last period if we're optimistic about their future performance."

Zuckerberg said that employees in the US affected by the cuts would be told by February 10, while those in other territories could take more time. At least 664 employees reacted to Zuckerberg's post with a shocked emoji, 386 with a like, and 66 with a crying emoji.

It's been an eventful week for Meta employees. On January 7, Zuckerberg announced that the company would replace third-party fact-checkers with a community-notes system and that it planned to bring political content back to the news feed. On Friday, staffers were informed that Meta would roll back its DEI programs.

"Teams aren't exactly strong when morale is low, and this is already a pretty rough ride over the last week," one employee wrote in the internal message board on Tuesday following the announcement of cuts.

A Meta spokesperson didn't comment on the memos and the employee reactions.

Monkeys 'throwing darts'

To determine which employees it could cut, Meta will use its internal performance-review program, which scores employees in buckets such as "did not meet expectations" and "exceeded expectations."

One employee writing in the internal channel expressed skepticism that the performance-review system was an accurate way to do this. "I would say the ratings and process creates marginally better than 'monkey's throwing darts' in terms of reflecting the actual performance and impact for a large majority of the people," they wrote.

Others asked if the changes would apply to low-performing managers and how people on maternity or mental-health leave would be affected.

"How are we going to balance false positive terminations of people who have context about the products and are just having unlucky halves with the cost of ramping up new people who have an even bigger chance of not being able to perform at the desired bar?" another employee asked.

Janelle Gale, Meta's vice president of human resources, told employees in a comment that an FAQ would be posted later on Tuesday "with additional information around how this process will work."

One employee suggested LGBTQ+ employees might have "additional concerns" about their performance ratings.

"As the company builds towards broader cognitive diversity, is there any outsized weighting for LGBTQ+ metamates in these perf reviews or in who gets offered severance?" they wrote. "Just want to check whether that will be a factor."

"Absolutely not," Gale said. "This is not in any way intended to target the LGBTQ+ community or any group. Objectivity and integrity are crucial aspects of the Perf@ process and we work hard to remove bias from our systems. We do not tolerate discrimination in any way. Full stop."

Do you work at Meta? Contact BI reporters from a nonwork email and device at [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

You can also reach them via Signal at jyotimann.11, hughlangley.01, and +1408-905-9124.

• Mark Zuckerberg told staff Tuesday that Meta will make "more extensive performance-based cuts."
• Meta plans to cut 5% of its lowest performers, according to a separate memo sent to managers.
• Last week, Meta said it would roll back DEI initiatives and get rid of third-party fact-checkers.

Meta is planning to cut 5% of its lowest performers, Business Insider has learned.

Mark Zuckerberg has told employees he "decided to raise the bar on performance management" and act quickly to "move out low-performers," according to an internal memo seen by BI.

The Meta chief wrote in a post on Workplace, the company's internal forum, that the company will make "more extensive performance-based cuts" during this year's performance review cycle.

Two Meta employees told BI that the company kickstarted its annual performance review process last week by having employees submit their self-reviews, peer reviews, and manager reviews.

Zuckerberg said that impacted employees in the US would be notified on February 10.

In a separate memo seen by BI, Meta's director of people development growth programs, Hillary Champion, told managers that the changes would mean "exiting approximately 5% of our lowest performers."

Meta employed 72,404 people globally as of September 30, 2024, according to its most recent earnings report.

Champion added that employees terminated for performance will '"receive generous severance packages, in line with previous cuts

Meta last week said it would dismantle its DEI-focused team and scrap diversity programs in its hiring process. The company's vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, said in the memo announcing the changes that the term DEI has "become charged" partly because it is "understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others."

It also made changes to its content moderation policies earlier that week, including getting rid of third-party fact-checkers in favor of a community notes model similar to X.

In March 2023, Meta laid off 10,000 workers — the second wave of cuts at the company in four months — in what Zuckerberg called Meta's "year of efficiency."

Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Read the full memo below:

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.

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 backfilling 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've provided with previous cuts.

We'll follow up with more guidance for managers ahead of calibrations. People who are impacted will be notified on February 10 -- or later for those outside the US.

Letting people go is never easy. But I'm confident this will strengthen our teams and help us build leading technology to enable the future of human connection.