Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Confronted by Employees Following Layoffs

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was confronted by his employees regarding the company’s most recent layoffs during their town hall. 

According to a report by Washington Post, one employee asked the CEO how they are expected to trust the company’s leadership following two rounds of layoffs. In response, Zuckerberg said he would expect to be evaluated based on the “company’s performance and transparency about its mission,” but that “leaders should be allowed to change their thinking.” 

“I would guess that the way people would evaluate whether you trust me and want to work at this company is whether we are succeeding in making progress toward the overall stated goals... Whether you think you basically get good context for me on what we're trying to do and that I'm being honest and giving you my best expectation that I can of things." Zuckerberg added.  

The CEO was also asked regarding the company’s remote work setup, to which he said might be “an ongoing conversation” without ruling out the chances of going back to office.  

An employee then raised the concern of the job cuts’ psychological consequences to employees and ex-employees. While the CEO admitted there is uncertainty in the results of disclosing layoff intentions, “it’s not like we can just pause working while we are figuring this out.”  

Another employee asked Zuckerberg how his perspective had shifted from November during the first round of layoffs, to which he said was a “completely fair question.” 

“I do think that you want to give people space to evolve their opinions on things and we’re in a volatile environment,” the CEO explained.  

"My guess is that we're not the only company that's going through multiple rounds of restructuring or things like that. I'm sure there are going to be a lot more as well over the long term," he added. 

Last week, the CEO announced his decision to layoff 10,000 workers and implement a hiring freeze as part of the company’s “Year of Efficiency.”  

This marks the second mass layoffs from Meta, with the first layoff taking place last November, affecting 13% of the company’s workforce.