Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, defended his leadership of the social media company during a staff-wide meeting on Thursday morning.
This meeting came two days after he announced that Meta would be reducing its workforce by 10,000 employees as part of a comprehensive restructuring and downsizing plan.
During the meeting, Zuckerberg was asked how employees could trust the company’s leadership after two rounds of layoffs.
He responded that trust should be based on the company’s performance and transparency regarding its mission, and he believes leaders should be allowed to adjust their strategies as needed.
Zuckerberg explained that employees should evaluate his leadership based on whether the company is making progress towards its stated goals. He emphasized that trust would be built on the results the company is able to achieve.
He also addressed why the company announced another round of restructuring and layoffs four months after he had assured staff in a November meeting that such cuts were unlikely in the near future.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that the economic pressures affecting the company are expected to persist and noted that the November layoffs appeared to enhance the company’s efficiency.
These comments follow Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta would be laying off more employees and closing 5,000 open positions over the coming months as part of a broader cost-cutting and organizational flattening effort.
This latest round of layoffs builds on the previous November cuts, which reduced the workforce by 11,000, or approximately 13 percent, marking the first major layoffs in Meta’s history.
Earlier this year, Zuckerberg had declared 2023 to be the “year of efficiency” due to declining revenue.
The company, which relies heavily on digital advertising, faces increased competition from new entrants like TikTok and has also admitted it overestimated the growth of the e-commerce market post-pandemic.
During the town hall, Zuckerberg was also questioned about the future of remote work.
Meta had previously noted that an initial analysis suggested that engineers who joined the company in-person and later transitioned to remote work, or who remained onsite, generally performed better than those who joined remotely.
Zuckerberg did not dismiss the possibility of implementing new policies to require employees to return to the office part-time but indicated that this would be an ongoing discussion.
He also mentioned that the company has decided to pause most remote hiring for the time being.
When asked about maintaining productivity amidst the uncertainty of layoffs and project cuts, Zuckerberg acknowledged that announcing layoffs in advance creates a period of uncertainty but believed it was better for employees to be informed ahead of time rather than pausing work while these issues are resolved.
