The second month of 2025 has brought in another layoff news. Meta has officially started communicating the news of 5% layoffs to its employees. This 5% workforce reduction will affect nearly 4,000 jobs in the US, Europe and Asia.
This update follows reports of Meta accelerating hiring in critical areas. According to a Business Insider report, Meta is currently seeking machine learning engineers.
In an internal memo, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the organisation is going to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster. It was also clarified that they are going to fill the roles later in the year.
However, some employees who were let go by the organisation this year disputed this claim by the social media giant. According to reports, they are claiming that they never received a bad review during their time in the organisation.
One of such affected employees was Elana Reman Safner. She blasted Meta in her post, saying the decision to lay her off was not performance-based. Safner claimed that she was 'collateral damage' of Mark Zuckerberg’s 'newfound masculine energy” and would not miss several things about her time at Meta.
She also dismissed Meta's claim in the same post, saying that she was targeted for taking leaves. As per the information available in the public domain, Safner was terminated right after she returned from her six-month-long maternity leave.
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It is also being reported that the employees were notified of their termination via email, and only the US-based staff is going to get a severance package, which includes 16 weeks of base pay plus an additional two weeks for each year of service. Employees eligible for performance bonuses will still receive them, and stock awards will be granted as part of the upcoming vesting cycle later this month.
