Meta employees might want to start updating their resumes.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told employees the company will hire fewer people this year—between 6,000 and 7,000 rather than the 10,000 it originally expected—and suggested that people who are already at the company may be let go due to modified performance standards.
Zuckerberg told employees during a Q&A session that "Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here," Reuters reports, which isn't the kind of thing most people want to hear from someone at the top of the org chart shortly before a federal holiday.
"Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn't for you," Zuckerberg said during the Q&A session, "and that self-selection is OK with me."
The comments were reportedly made shortly after Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox sent a memo to employees in which he said the company would have to "prioritize more ruthlessly"; "operate leaner, meaner, better executing teams"; and "execute flawlessly in an environment of slower growth, where teams should not expect vast influxes of new engineers and budgets."
Zuckerberg appears to agree with Cox's assessment. "If I had to bet," he said, "I'd say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we've seen in recent history." (Not that Zuckerberg, who according to Bloomberg has a net worth of approximately $60 billion, should be all that worried.)
Meta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.