- Meta’s layoffs were supposed to affect only the lowest-performing workers at the company. But laid-off employees have shared they received positive performance reviews and their jobs were cut anyway.
In mid-January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he had “decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster,” and planned to cut about 5% of his workforce. At the time, Zuckerberg made it sound as if it would just be low performers who would be affected by the layoffs.
“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year,” he said in an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg. “But now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”
But now, some workers who claim they received favorable performance reviews and were otherwise not the lowest performers have gotten caught up in the cuts, which began Monday and impacted about 3,600 workers.
One Meta employee posted on LinkedIn on Monday she was laid off after receiving an “exceeds expectations” rating on her midyear review.
“I frequently asked for feedback and was always told I was doing a good job,” Kaila Curry, an ex-content manager at Meta, wrote in the LinkedIn post. “I was never placed on a PIP [performance improvement plan], never given corrective feedback, and never properly mentored or provided clear expectations. I simply put in the work… I am not a low performer.”
Another ex-Meta employee who was laid off said the company’s assertion it’s cutting the dead wood is “flat-out wrong.”
“I was let go today—but not because I was a ‘low performer,’” wrote LinkedIn user Steven S., a former product designer for Instagram. “Let’s be clear: that label is misleading, and for many of us, it’s flat-out wrong.” This user didn’t mention or show what rating he received on the performance review.
However, it’s unclear what Meta qualifies as a “low performer.” The company didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Business Insider also spoke with several Meta employees who had been affected by the layoffs and spoke on the condition of anonymity. They said they had received an “at or above expectations” rating on their 2024 assessments, which would rank them as mid-tier employees at Meta, not low performers.
“The hardest part is Meta publicly stating they’re cutting low performers, so it feels like we have the scarlet letter on our backs,” one employee told Business Insider. “People need to know we’re not underperformers.”
Diane Brady, executive director of Fortune Live Media, also called out Zuckerberg’s labeling of Meta’s most recently laid-off employees as low-performing.
“There’s something to be said for letting people leave with their dignity intact rather than branding them as subpar performers,” Brady wrote in her CEO Daily newsletter on Tuesday. “Companies that celebrate and support former employees tend to create more fans than foes.”
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Year of efficiency?
These layoffs come on the heels of Zuckerberg’s declared “year of efficiency” in 2023 when he announced plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs. He insisted, though, that the latest round of layoffs was different and would only impact the lowest-performing employees in an effort to keep Meta’s “strongest talent” and ability to “bring new people in.” Meanwhile, Meta has expedited hiring for machine-learning engineers, Reuters reported, as the company continues to build out AI features.
“From a hiring standpoint, our focus continues to be on adding technical talent to support our strategic priorities,” Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said during a Jan. 29 call with investors.
For now, affected Meta employees will continue to question why they were let go.
“Maybe I ‘lacked masculine energy‘ (to quote Mark Zuckerberg himself),” Curry wrote. “Who knows?”