During the session, Zuckerberg bluntly told the Meta workforce that “…some of you might decide this isn’t the place for you, and that self-selection is OK with me.” The statement highlights the company’s need to brace for additional economic hardships and coincides with a ~30% reduction in planned 2022 hires, down from the original 10,000 target to between 6,000 and 7,000 hires this year. Zuckerberg’s focus on increased performance and reduced hiring is designed to weed out poor performers and those who are unable to meet Meta’s new performance goals.
His statements come on the heels of Meta CPO Chris Cox’s, whose pre-meeting memo to employees outlined Meta’s intent to “prioritize ruthlessly” and “operate leaner, meaner, better executing teams.” Despite the personnel and management changes, Cox’s memo also highlighted Meta’s need to expand the number of GPUs in its data centers to support their TikTok-style app, Reels, as well as to fuel AI tasked with surfacing popular feeds from users’ Facebook and Instagram accounts.
In addition to Meta’s current social media-based services, the company’s hardware division has been focused on delivering a mixed reality headset to the market. Nicknamed “Cambria,” the next generation headset will supposedly feature 16 cameras as well as eye and face tracking capabilities. The headset is set to launch in the second half of 2022 with pricing rumored to start at $799. Many of the changes are meant to help Meta regain ground and increase revenue growth for the remainder of the year and beyond. Zuckerberg’s and co. strong words may be designed to appeal to investors and shareholders, but will undoubtedly have Meta employees touching up resumes or looking for other safer, more stable opportunities. And from the sounds of it they should. Statements like these aren’t simply a warning that change is coming, but rather the sign that the change is already here, and casualties are inevitable.
