Meta Fires 4,000 “Low Performing” Employees

It appears Meta is taking a page from DOGE’s playbook.

Nearly 4,000 employees have been laid off from Meta in the latest round of layoffs.

The layoffs come as Meta plans to lay off 5% of its workforce.

Many of the 4,000 employees were labeled as “under-performing” employees.

🚨 LAYOFF ALERT – 🇺🇸

Meta will layoff approximately 4,000 employees as company shifts focus on performance, AI investments. pic.twitter.com/dEXyo0cFk4

— The Layoff Tracker 🚨 (@WhatLayoff) February 11, 2025

Per Business Insider:

Several Meta employees who said they received positive performance ratings in their mid-year reviews last year had their jobs cut Monday, as the company let go of nearly 4,000 workers in its latest round of job reductions.
Business Insider spoke to eight terminated employees, who said they received “At or Above Expectations” ratings — the middle tier in Meta’s three-level mid-year review system — in their 2024 assessments. These employees said they were surprised to learn their ratings had been downgraded to “Meets Most,” one of the lower tiers in Meta’s year-end performance system that refers to meeting most, but not all, expectations and could make them eligible for Monday’s cuts. They asked to be anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss internal company matters.

The job cuts stem from Meta’s push to let go of roughly 5% of its lowest-performing employees, according to internal guidance sent to managers in January. While Meta framed these cuts as targeting underperforming workers, internal guidance sent last month by Hillary Champion, Meta’s director of people experience, and viewed by BI, allowed managers to include employees from higher performance tiers if they couldn’t meet their reduction targets from lower-rated employees alone.

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Many employees said they were caught off guard by their inclusion in the cuts, as this guidance had previously only been shared with managers, not with the broader workforce.

Meta is laying off 5% of its 'lowest performers,' cutting around 4,000 jobs starting today. This follows Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that the company will 'move out low performers faster,' stating that 2025 will be an intense year for Meta.

Why do you think layoffs in the… pic.twitter.com/cFKJOtYbpr

— Blind (@TeamBlind) February 10, 2025

Per Times of India:

Facebook parent company Meta has begun notifying employees of a 5% workforce reduction, potentially impacting nearly 4,000 jobs in the US, Europe and Asia, even as it reportedly appears to be bolstering its engineering teams by ‘expediting recruiting’ in key areas.
According to a report by Business Insider, Meta is actively recruiting engineers, particularly those specialising in machine learning.

In an internal memo in which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he “decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” he noted that the company will also fill these roles later this year.