Meta started layoffs for U.S. employees at 5 a.m. PT on Monday, letting employees know in the event that they had been nonetheless employed through emails. The job cuts affected 5% of Meta’s 72,000-person world workforce, or about 3,600 workers, and had been framed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a solution to transfer out low performers on the firm.
Nevertheless, a brand new report from Enterprise Insider discovered some affected employees had a observe report of excessive achievement, performing nicely of their 2024 midyear critiques earlier than all of the sudden being downgraded to a decrease tier in Meta’s 2024 year-end efficiency evaluate system.
Enterprise Insider interviewed eight laid-off workers who advised the outlet that they acquired mid-level “At or Above Expectations” rankings on their midyear 2024 assessments however had been pushed right down to “Meets Most,” a lower-level score, for his or her 2024 year-end efficiency critiques. The decrease score brought about them to be fired on Monday.
Associated: Meta Informs Workers that Layoffs Will Start Monday Morning in a Now-Leaked Inner Memo
Inner steerage despatched to Meta managers in January from Hillary Champion, Meta’s director of individuals growth progress applications, advised managers to deliver workers from greater efficiency classes into decrease efficiency tiers to fulfill targets. Managers had to make sure that 12% to fifteen% of their group was grouped within the “Meets Most” or beneath classes, making them eligible for layoffs.
Terminated workers with regular histories of excessive efficiency had been shocked after they received the e-mail on Monday.
“Once I acquired the e-mail I used to be stunned by it largely as a result of I’ve a really stable efficiency historical past and no indicators of the final six months of efficiency issues,” a terminated Meta worker advised BI.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs
Different laid-off workers posted their previous efficiency experiences to Office, Meta’s inner platform, with one affected employee stating that they met or exceeded expectations for 4 years earlier than being pushed right down to “Meets Most” in late 2024.
One other employee mentioned they all of the sudden dropped two score ranges from “Exceeds Expectations” of their midyear 2024 assessments to “Meets Most” for his or her 2024 year-end evaluate with none supervisor suggestions about why they’d been downgraded.
Associated: Meta Reminds Workers of Its Strict No-Leaks Coverage — That Has Since Been Leaked to the Press
These terminated workers query Meta’s public stance that the layoffs solely affected low performers and say that the corporate may injury the reputations of affected workers as they search for new work.
“The toughest half is Meta publicly stating they’re slicing low performers, so it appears like we have now the scarlet letter on our backs,” one affected worker advised BI. “Folks have to know we’re not underperformers.”
“Now individuals have to return out into the job market with a label that’s extremely unfair,” one other Meta worker beforehand advised BI.
