• Some Meta workers impacted by Monday's job cuts were surprised since they said they had strong track records.
• Meta's layoffs targeted 5% of low performers. Some higher-rated staff said they were "blindsided."
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing to streamline the company's workforce.

Several Meta employees who said they received positive performance ratings in their mid-year reviews last year had their jobs cut Monday, as the company let go of nearly 4,000 workers in its latest round of job reductions.

Business Insider spoke to eight terminated employees, who said they received "At or Above Expectations" ratings — the middle tier in Meta's three-level mid-year review system — in their 2024 assessments. These employees said they were surprised to learn their ratings had been downgraded to "Meets Most," one of the lower tiers in Meta's year-end performance system that refers to meeting most, but not all, expectations and could make them eligible for Monday's cuts. They asked to be anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss internal company matters.

The job cuts stem from Meta's push to let go of roughly 5% of its lowest-performing employees, according to internal guidance sent to managers in January. While Meta framed these cuts as targeting underperforming workers, internal guidance sent last month by Hillary Champion, Meta's director of people experience, and viewed by BI, allowed managers to include employees from higher performance tiers if they couldn't meet their reduction targets from lower-rated employees alone.

Some employees said they were caught off guard by their inclusion in the cuts, as this guidance had previously only been shared with managers, not with the broader workforce.

"When I received the email I was surprised by it mostly because I have a very solid performance history and no indicators of the last six months of performance problems," one affected employee told BI.

Meta began its year-end performance review process for 2024 in December, although most employees wouldn't learn their final ratings until the coming weeks.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing to streamline Meta's workforce as the company pours billions into artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The cuts could become an annual event as Meta aims to regularly trim what it considers its lowest performers. Meanwhile, Meta plans to ramp up the hiring of machine learning engineers to work on AI.

Meta did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Meta downgraded some employees' ratings

Multiple employees told BI that they felt frustrated that Meta had publicly framed the layoffs as targeting consistently low performers when some of those affected had previously received strong performance reviews.

In posts on Workplace, Meta's internal communications platform, several laid-off employees shared their performance histories, according to screenshots viewed by BI. One employee who said they were "unexpectedly" terminated posted documentation showing they had consistently met or exceeded expectations for four years before being downgraded to "Meets Most" in late 2024. Another employee reported being cut shortly after returning from parental leave, despite receiving an "At or Above Expectations" rating in early 2024.

"I am super confused how I got terminated," they wrote. "I still think this is an error."

The sudden downgrade in performance ratings left many employees feeling misrepresented by Meta's public stance on the layoffs. Some employees worried that being branded as a "low performer" publicly could harm future employment prospects.

"The hardest part is Meta publicly stating they're cutting low performers, so it feels like we have the scarlet letter on our backs," another employee told BI. "People need to know we're not underperformers."

"I would certainly challenge Meta's narrative about cutting only low performers," another affected employee said. "I have a really, really difficult time believing I was a low performer based on past feedback I was given by my manager."

Another employee said their manager had given them no indication that their job was at risk.

"We were told by leadership that if we would be impacted by this then we would already be expecting it, based on conversations our managers should have been having with us in our weekly one-on-ones," one former employee said. "But I was completely blindsided by this. My manager had been telling me that I have been doing great and did not provide any areas to be worked on. My manager even said that I would be fine and not impacted."

Likewise, another worker who received an "Exceeds Expectations" rating in their mid-year review said they were surprised to be "dropped two ratings" to "Meets Most" without explanation.

"We are not even able to see the feedback that our manager wrote for us," they said.

If you're a current or former Meta employee, or have an insight to share about the company, contact Pranav Dixit from a nonwork device securely on Signal at +1-408-905-9124 or email him at [email protected].

Reach Jyoti Mann via email at [email protected] or via Signal at jyotimann.11. Get in touch with Hugh Langley at [email protected] or reach him on Signal at hughlangley.01

• Meta may plan for annual performance-based job cuts to boost employee performance.
• The strategy aims to increase "non-regrettable attrition" and remove the lowest performers.
• Affected employees will still receive bonuses and stock vesting despite the layoffs.

Meta's performance-based job cuts could become an annual occurrence, according to an internal FAQ document viewed by Business Insider.

The document, shared with employees by Hillary Champion, Meta's director of people development growth programs, addresses whether Meta's upcoming performance-related layoffs will happen every year.

"We are committed to a culture of high performance and are trying to raise the bar by increasing our annual non-regrettable attrition and moving faster to move our lowest performers out," Champion's memo says. "We may use future performance cycles to do that."

The development comes amid an already intense review process designed to cut about 5% of Meta's workforce deemed to be its lowest performers. These cuts are set to be finalized by February 10 for US-based employees, with some international notifications occurring later.

The FAQ also reassures employees that location will not influence their ratings or termination risk and confirms that anyone impacted by the performance reviews will still receive their February 15, 2025 vesting, any due dividends, and bonuses if any are eligible.

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• Meta plans to cut 5% of low-performing employees.
• The cuts are part of a strategy to improve performance.
• Meta aims for 10% "non-regrettable attrition," combining last year's and this year's targets.

A memo from one of Meta's human-resources executives explained to managers on Tuesday how the company's performance-based job cuts would work in the coming weeks.

Hillary Champion, Meta's director of people development growth programs, instructed managers to categorize employees into performance tiers based on their contributions over the past year, according to the memo, a copy of which was obtained by Business Insider.

Champion wrote in the memo that Meta aimed to reach 10% "non-regrettable attrition" by the end of this performance cycle, combining last year's 5% with an additional 5% this year. These are employees that the company wouldn't consider a loss if they left.

She signaled that Meta was ramping up pressure on underperformers and trying to more quickly decide who stays and who goes.

"We have really ambitious goals, so we need to manage our workforce in a way that ensures we have the strongest talent working here and can move faster in managing out low performers so that we can bring new people in," Champion said.

Her guidance for managers came shortly after Meta told employees it was preparing to cut about 5% of its lowest-performing staffers as part of an effort to "raise the bar." Meta said it intended to backfill these roles in 2025.

Meta's performance ratings, and who will be cut

BI also obtained a copy of Meta's internal performance guidance on Tuesday. This document describes several categories, one of which is "met most expectations." Other ratings include "met some" and "did not meet."

"Anyone who receives a rating of 'Met Some' or 'Did Not Meet' will be automatically added to the performance termination list," Champion told Meta managers.

"The number of people in the 'Met Most' category to be terminated will vary," she added.

This depends partly on whether Meta's target of 10% non-regrettable attrition is met. Champion shared a theoretical example: If a team had 5% non-regrettable attrition in 2024 and then put 3% of employees in the "met some" rating, an extra 2% of workers from the "met most" group would need to be cut to hit the 10% total.

The coming job cuts are part of a broader strategy to reshape Meta's workforce and become more efficient amid huge investments in AI, virtual reality, and the future of social media.

Last week the company rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and disbanded its third-party fact-checking program.

Here's the memo from Champion:

Manager Update for the Performance@ Process

Following up on Mark's announcement today, I want to share some details about the role you will need to play through this performance cycle, and offer some guidance on how to lead through this.

What's Happening

• We have really ambitious goals, so we need to manage our workforce in a way that ensures we have the strongest talent working here and can move faster in managing out low performers so that we can bring new people in. As a result, we are exiting approximately 5% of our lowest performers.
• Calibrations continue to be our process for differentiating performance, recognizing impact, and making promotion decisions. In addition to the process overview shared in December, we will be using the calibration window to identify the lowest performers for performance termination.
• Company-wide, we expect to reach 10% non-regrettable attrition by the end of this Performance cycle, inclusive of ~5% non-regrettable attrition from 2024. This means we are aiming to exit approximately another 5% of our current employees who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance rating. The exact percentage will vary by org depending on their non-regrettable attrition in 2024.
• Those who are terminated for performance will receive generous severance packages, in line with previous cuts.
• Org leaders will share more on the the specific backfill process for your Org.

How Performance Calibrations will Work

Below is a topline view of what to expect. HRBPs will guide teams through this and provide more details during calibrations.

- This will be a normal calibration process and we will use the time to identify our strongest performers in addition to our lowest. We will discuss all ratings, flags, edge cases and promotions as usual.

• Consistent with our distribution guidance, teams will need to identify 12-15% of employees who are eligible to receive a performance rating as Met Most and Below ("MMB"). This includes any 2024 non-regrettable attrition, which will be visible in the performance tool and shared with team leaders during calibrations.
  • Example: If your org's 2024 NR attrition was 5%, then your team will need to identify 7-10% to receive MMB ratings in order to meet the 12-15% total.
• As you go through calibrations, your HRBP will also help you differentiate performance by utilizing the Met Some rating more than we have in the past.
• Anyone who receives a rating of "Met Some" or "Did Not Meet" will be automatically added to the performance termination list.
• Later in the calibration process, your Director and VP will review those with a "Met Most" rating to determine who will be terminated to meet the required 10% target. The number of people in the "Met Most" category to be terminated will vary, depending on your org's 2024 non-regrettable attrition rate and how many people are rated "Met Some" or "Did Not Meet"
  • Example: If your org had 5% non-regrettable attrition in 2024, and through calibrations put 3% in the "Met Some" rating, Directors and above will need to select an additional 2% from the "Met Most" group in order to reach the 10% total.
• You should use the flag and notes features within the performance tool to make any recommendations about whether someone with a "Met Most" rating should be included in the performance terminations or not.

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• Meta's chief marketing officer Alex Schultz is concerned that "too much censorship" is harmful.
• Schultz's comments come after Meta updated several policies, including content moderation.
• The new guidelines change what is permissible to be said about LGBTQ+ people.

Meta's chief marketing officer warned that greater censorship on its platforms could "harm speech" from the LGBTQ+ community aiming to push back against hate.

Alex Schultz posted his feelings on Meta's decision to change its policy on hateful conduct earlier this week in a post on its internal forum.

"My perspective is we've done well as a community when the debate has happened and I was shocked with how far we've gone with censorship of the debate," Schultz wrote in the post, seen by Business Insider.

He added that his friends and family were shocked to see him receive abuse as a gay man in the past, but that it helped them to realize hatred exists.

"Most of our progress on rights happened during periods without mass censorship like this and pushing it underground, I think, has coincided with reversals," he said.

"Obviously, I don't like people saying things that I consider awful but I worry that the solution of censoring that doesn't work as well as you might hope. So I don't know the answer, this stuff is really complicated, but I am worried that too much censorship is actually harmful and that's may have been where we ended up."

Earlier this week, the company adjusted its moderation guidelines to allow statements on its platforms claiming that LGBTQ+ people are "mentally ill" and removed trans and nonbinary-themed chat options from its Messenger app, features that had previously been showcased as part of the company's support for Pride Month.

Schultz also said that he does not think that censorship and cancel culture have helped the LGBTQ+ movement.

He wrote, "We don't enforce these things perfectly," and cited an example of a mistake of taking down images of two men kissing and removing a slur word toward gay people rather than a deliberate move by a "bigoted person in operations."

Schultz added, "So the more rules we have, the more mistakes we make…Moderation is hard and we'll always get it wrong somewhat. The more rules, the more censorship, the more we'll harm speech from our own community pushing back on hatred."

The company's latest decision to roll back its DEI programs has sparked intense internal debate and public scrutiny. The announcement, delivered via an internal memo by VP of HR Janelle Gale, said that the company would dismantle its dedicated DEI team and eliminate diversity programs in its hiring process.

The company said Tuesday it will replace third-party fact-checkers on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads with a community notes system, mirroring the approach used on Elon Musk's platform, X.

Schulz told BI in an interview earlier this week that the election of Donald Trump and a broader shift in public sentiment around free speech played significant roles in these decisions.

He acknowledged that internal and external pressures had led Meta to adopt more restrictive policies in recent years, but the company is now taking steps to regain control over its approach to content moderation.

Meta's internal forum, Workplace, saw reactions ranging from anger and disappointment to cautious optimism about the company's direction.

One employee lamented the rollback as "another step backward" for Meta, while others raised concerns about the message it sends to marginalized communities that rely on Meta's platforms.

At Meta's offices in Silicon Valley, Texas, and New York, facilities managers were instructed to remove tampons from men's bathrooms, which the company had provided for nonbinary and transgender employees who use the men's room and may require sanitary products, The New York Times reported on Friday.

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

You can email Jyoti Mann at [email protected], send her a secure message on Signal @jyotimann.11 or DM her via X @jyoti_mann1

If you're a current or former Meta employee, contact this reporter from a nonwork device securely on Signal at +1-408-905-9124 or email him at [email protected].