Meta confirmed: intends to lay off about 11,000 employees - about 13% of the workforce

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, confirmed on Wednesday that it intends to lay off about 11,000 employees (about 13% of the workforce). Even earlier, the Wall Street Journal published this morning that its founder and big boss, Mark Zuckerberg, told hundreds of her managers in a meeting he held with them that the layoffs would begin today. This is the largest mass of layoffs this year in the technology industry.
According to people present at that meeting, Zuckerberg appeared very down and took responsibility for Meta's recent failures, adding that his optimism about growth had led to an overstaffing at the company. The director of human resources at Metta, Lori Goller, said that the workers who will be fired will receive compensation of four salaries.
Zuckerberg elaborated on the layoffs and said that the departments from which a large amount of employees will be released are the recruiting department as well as the business department. Meta employees have already been notified of the cutbacks plan, with those who will lose their jobs being notified during the day.
Since the announcements regarding Meta's intention to make significant cuts in its workforce, the company's employees are in uncertainty and preparing for the worst. They began conversations among themselves, and also with colleagues outside the company, and discussed the options before them and how they could use the benefits they received from Meta over the years.
After the meeting with Zuckerberg, some of the managers already informed their employees of the company's plan and intention to start the layoff process from today. Some managers already told employees a few days ago not to plan non-essential trips.
The planned layoffs will be the company's first significant ones since it was founded 18 years ago. They also come following a drastic fall in the stock (more than 70% this year), when investors were alarmed by its expenses. One of the reasons for the slowdown in Meta's growth came in light of the competition it has from TikTok.
Meta is of course not the only company to lay off workers in the technology industry. Only in the last few days, Twitter fired thousands of employees, after the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, purchased it and is trying to adapt it to his vision. Snap announced in August that it would cut about 20% of its workforce, or more than 1,000 employees, as it expects slower sales growth in 2023.
Another company that started laying off employees this week is Salesforce. "We must be responsible in light of the rate of sales. Unfortunately, this could lead to the departure of some employees. We will support them during this transition." The number of people fired from the company was several hundred.