Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has reportedly expanded the number of employees who will be labeled as “low performers” in midyear performance reviews – just months after it slashed about 4,000 workers who it claimed fell short of expectations.
The company has told managers on teams consisting of 150 employees or higher to classify more workers as having performed “below expectations,” according to a May 14 memo obtained by Business Insider.
The designation is expected to apply to 15% to 20% of employees on those teams, up from 12% to 15% last year.
Meta will begin its midyear review process on June 16, with related meetings to continue through August.
The memo said “there will be no company-wide performance terminations, unlike earlier this year” – though it nonetheless described the review process as an “opportunity to make exit decisions,” according to Insider.
The expanded range will include employees who already left through what the company calls “non-regrettable attrition” – or roles that aren’t essential to operations.
Employees who resigned or were laid off for poor performance during the year are included in the figure.
It’s unclear how many more employees could be cut beyond the 4,000 that were laid off in February.
Meta declined to comment.
Earlier this year, Zuckerberg warned employees to brace for an “intense year” as Meta pours more resources into the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said at the time.
“We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle,” Zuckerberg added.
Many of the impacted workers took issue with Meta’s classifications, claiming they had received positive feedback from their managers just last year.
Meta had previously slashed thousands of jobs in 2023 as part of what Zuckerberg described as a “year of efficiency,” which included thinning out the company’s management ranks.
