Layoffs are bad for business

When Meta, formerly Facebook, laid off 11,000 workers in November, it was in the shadow of Elon Musk’s brutal and chaotic firing spree at Twitter. By comparison, the way Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg conducted layoffs — saying he took responsibility for growing the company too fast, showing what other cuts the company made first, and offering generous severance — seemed humane.

But this week, Zuckerberg announced plans to lay off another 10,000 workers and will do so in a piecemeal fashion over the next few months. People who work in recruitment will be immediately impacted, those in tech will find out in April, while business workers will learn their fate in late May. Additionally, Zuckerberg had been hinting at these layoffs for weeks, further extending the air of unease at the company. 

It’s a bad way to do layoffs, which experts say should be minimal, compassionate, and clearly communicated. Doing so little by little will leave workers on edge and drive away people Meta wants to keep, and there’s also a good chance it will also hurt the company from growing in the future. 

“We just extended the window for people worrying about layoffs till the end of May now. How is that supposed to be efficient?” a Meta employee, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to jeopardize their employment, told Vox.