Tech giant rated thousands of employees as below average in performance reviews
“Our management theme for 2023 is the ‘Year of Efficiency’ and we’re focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization.”
Mark Zuckerberg made that decree as part of Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings report on Feb. 1, and the CEO’s words are ringing even louder following a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Facebook’s parent company has reportedly issued “subpar ratings” to thousands of employees in their recent performance reviews. Furthermore, approximately 10% of workers received ratings indicating that they were underperforming. Additionally, the Menlo Park, CA-based social media giant has cut a bonus metric to 85% of its target.
“We’ve 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 Meta spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.
“Meta managers gave approximately 10% of employees ratings indicating they are underperforming, the people said. That proportion wasn’t unprecedented in the years before the pandemic.” https://t.co/E5qz09VnMn
— Sam Ro 📈 (@SamRo) February 17, 2023
Based on these reviews, Meta is reportedly expecting more employees to leave in the coming weeks, and if not, more layoffs could be on the horizon. In November, the technology firm cut 13% of its workforce, more than 11,000 employees. Additionally, the company reduced discretionary spending and extended its hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023.
“In this new environment, we need to become more capital efficient,” Zuckerberg said in a letter to employees in November. “We’ve cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. We’re restructuring teams to increase our efficiency. But these measures alone won’t bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I’ve also made the hard decision to let people go.”
In September, Meta gave many of its employees a month to apply for different positions within the company, the Wall Street Journal reported. Re-organizing departments was expected to be merely the first step toward larger staff reductions. In July, engineering managers at Meta were tasked with identifying anyone on their team who “needs support” and reporting them in an internal HR system, The Information reported. “If a direct report is coasting or is a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,” wrote Maher Saba, the company’s head of engineering. “As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta.”
That came on the heels of Zuckerberg telling staffers during a companywide call that not everyone was meeting the company’s standards and that some might want to leave voluntarily, Reuters reported. Zuckerberg added the company planned on reducing plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year.
