‘They Are Not Who We Need:’ Meta Reportedly Advising Managers to Axe Poor Performing Employees

‘They Are Not Who We Need:’ Meta Reportedly Advising Managers to Axe Poor Performing Employees

Life’s about to get a hell of a lot more stressful for Meta employees.

Amid a growing wave of layoffs industry-wide, a senior Meta executive has reportedly advised company managers to identify and, “move to exit,” poor-performing employees. That revelation comes by way of The Information which cites a post on Meta’s internal message board authored by Vice President of Remote Presence and Engineering Maher Saba. Saba had some harsh words for those so-called low performers.

“If a direct report is coasting or a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,” Saba reportedly said. “As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta.”

Those reported cuts are potentially right around the corner. In his post, Saba instructed managers to suss out employees on their team who “need support” by 5 p.m. Monday and “move to exit people who are unable to get on track.” Gizmodo couldn’t immediately confirm whether that 5 p.m. deadline referred to Monday, July 11, or July 18.

Meta did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.

The report mirrors a general downturn in the tech industry dusty writ larg, affecting everything from AI and fintech startups to cryptocurrency firms and just about everything in between. Just in the past few months, Netflix, Klarna, Substack, Tesla, and Coinbase have all announced issued layoffs of various sizes. In Tesla’s case, the company, recently valued at $US1 ($1) trillion, was forced to cut 200 employees from its Autopilot advanced driver assistance program, a feature CEO Elon Musk has said is pivotal to the company’s growth. Overall, Crunchbase estimates The Great Tech Layoff of 2022 has resulted in the loss of around 24,000 workers in the U.S so far. Yikes.

Meta recently hinted layoff layoffs were a possibility. The company’s stock plummeted back in February, marking an early, eerie premonition for what was to come in the broader industry. Then, last month, a leaked Q&A between Mark Zuckerberg and employees revealed the company intended to slash the hiring of its engineers by 30% for the remainder of the year.

“If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,” Zuckerberg reportedly said during the meeting. Zuckerberg also essentially tried to encourage some employees to jump ship prior to layoffs.

“I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is ok with me,” Zuckerberg said. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.”

Meta might not be alone in the recent tech layoff spree but it does face serious challenges specific to its core business. Early this year, the company revealed its daily active users had declined for the first time ever in its 18-year history. That decline, attributed largely to an inability to court users and an insurgent TikTok, leaves the once seemingly untouchable tech behemoth in arguably one of its most vulnerable situations in years.

But hey, forget about all that and go ahead and keep spending billions on the metaverse instead.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.