Meta India Announces Major Layoffs: Senior Executives Bear the Brunt

Meta India now has a new leader, Sandhya Devanathan. She succeeds former country head Ajit Mohan and reports directly to their Vice President of Asia.

Mohan attributes the company's success in India to a deliberate decision in 2018-19 to focus on localized innovations that could be exported elsewhere - including digital payments on WhatsApp and short videos known as Instagram Reels.

Marketing

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will reportedly release hundreds of employees following a massive round of layoffs that affected 11,000 staff globally in November. Meta's parent company wants to reduce costs after over-hiring during pandemic outbreak and subsequent decline in advertising revenues.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a memo outlining this plan in order to streamline and flatten its overall structure, increase efficiency with regards to product development and decision-making, as well as improve communication among teams.

These changes will affect everyone from interns to the most senior employees. Those being laid off will receive 16 weeks of severance pay (two additional weeks per year of service), health care for six months at cost and stock-based compensation that was vesting through November 15. Likewise, the company offers similar packages for employees leaving outside of the U.S.

Marketing department employees who keep their jobs will have the option to relocate within the company and join another team at another location of interest, according to the company. They will receive a relocation allowance as well as three months salary as help with transition.

Meta isn't the only tech company making significant staff reductions this month; other big-name tech firms like Google, Twitter and Shopify have all seen staff reductions too - an indicator of global economic slowdown affecting tech firms hard.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's founder and CEO, cites global economic slowdown, rising interest rates, geopolitical unpredictability and regulatory hurdles as primary causes for the mass layoffs. He pledged to make 2023 an "year of efficiency" at Meta.

Other departments affected by the latest round of layoffs at this company include administration and human resources. Travel and training budgets were cut significantly, while seven offices will be reduced to four and Mumbai and Bangalore locations will close as a result of these cuts.

HR

As the job market struggles, more companies have been cutting back on workforces. Forbes' Layoff Tracker indicates that over 120 major U.S. companies have conducted multiple rounds of layoffs this year - such as tech startups, manufacturers, banks, and online giants like Twitter (who recently fired nearly half of its employees). Twitter follows an overall trend of massive layoffs across technology firms due to headwinds and slowing growth.

Meta is no exception: they've been cutting staff and budgets to become more profitable, including layoffs of staff in India. Recently, layoffs targeted members of their recruiting team; full-time offers had also been cancelled prior to these cuts; all part of an effort by Meta to reduce costs and enhance efficiency.

According to sources, Meta's latest round of layoffs may have been "the largest to date at a major technology corporation this year", following Twitter's mass firing last week. Meta is trying to turn itself around after revenue declined during pandemic and losses increased at Reality Labs division that works on developing metaverse.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, acknowledged that overoptimism about future growth led to overstaffing and that hiring engineers for now would be put on hold in favor of restructuring its business teams so as to reduce non-engineering roles. He announced that they will now stop hiring engineers temporarily in favor of restructuring them so as to reduce overstaffing issues in future growth plans.

This move will refocus the company on its core digital advertising business, which has fallen behind other tech firms. Furthermore, this action will reduce expenses by cutting perks and costs, making them more cost-efficient in relation to similar measures taken by other tech companies.

This round of layoffs comes as the tech sector grapples with slowing demand and an uncertain job market. Some analysts remain hopeful that demand will rebound during the second quarter, while others remain pessimistic. Short term, these layoffs could result in reduced productivity and higher costs - both of which would be detrimental to the economy as a whole; these layoffs may especially harm women who typically have less chance finding employment within this industry.

Finance

Meta has announced a plan to reduce staff by 10,000 as part of a plan to streamline its business and cut revenue growth, reduce digital advertising during pandemic, and take a hit from its Reality Labs division that builds virtual world known as metaverse.

Meta's latest round of cuts targets business and operations teams across many departments - marketing, site security, enterprise engineering, program management, content strategy and corporate communications among them. Employees working within these teams have taken to LinkedIn to express their discontent at receiving such unfortunate job news; furthermore Meta is cutting employees who specialize in privacy or integrity-focused areas as well.

Meta has already announced one major round of layoffs this year; these latest round is part of their continuing effort to reduce employment levels by cutting recruitment and tech groups as well as closing applications for roles not yet filled.

While the stock price has seen significant gains over recent months, earnings per share has seen significant drops, prompting management to cut expenses in order to return profitability - leading to several rounds of layoffs which has affected many employees and their families.

These layoffs are indicative of ongoing turmoil within the tech sector, where numerous major companies have reduced employee numbers significantly in recent weeks. Amazon, Twilio, Dell and eBay all announced significant reductions. Google laid off thousands of employees, as did Twitter in January.

Layoffs have dealt a severe blow to the job market and made finding employment more challenging for many individuals, yet it remains possible if we work together as a community to assist those affected by them in finding work opportunities in their fields. It's important to remember there are still plenty of chances out there; our current economic status will improve soon enough and there should be plenty of employment prospects open again. In the meantime, however, we must come together in support of those affected by layoffs so they may discover new ones more quickly.

Technology

Companies looking to reduce costs typically reduce employee numbers and close offices; this trend hasn't been quite so drastic in Silicon Valley where large firms often have teams around the world and local labor laws protect against mass layoffs. Instead, companies like Facebook and Uber are taking measures to become leaner businesses, while electric carmaker Rivian may lay off roughly 5 percent of its 14,000 employee workforce.

Layoffs come at a time when global tech is experiencing a shakeup and investors have become suspicious of its future profits. Cloud computing services have lost some popularity recently and companies are cutting unprofitable lines of business as their stock prices fall and some reduce hiring plans to save money - some notable reductions include Facebook cancelling its contract with facility management vendor ABM Industries which led to over 350 job cuts at Menlo Park headquarters alone.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a 2023 plan that prioritizes efficiency following revenue declines and higher inflation concerns at his company. They saw reduced digital advertising spending, as well as losses on Reality Labs -- their division dedicated to creating the Metaverse. Furthermore, Facebook is facing slowing overall growth as well as rising competition from apps such as TikTok.

Although most of the layoffs were concentrated within recruitment and HR departments, some positions in engineering also fell victim to reductions following an announcement by the company that 5,000 roles they hadn't yet filled were closed off for applications.

Employees who were laid off received compensation packages that included three months' base pay plus additional financial support based on the length of employment. Some workers even had their health insurance extended for an additional six-month period.

The latest round of layoffs at Facebook were concentrated in the Bay Area, where most of its employees reside. Overall, 21% of their global staff was affected and they will gradually reduce hiring at California offices over time; additionally they plan on restructuring the content moderation team located in Ireland which employs over 400 workers.