Meta layoffs: A look at how 11,000 fired employees will be compensated

In a decision that has been a long time coming for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, the social networking site announced that it will cut down its workforce by 13 percent, laying off more than 11,000 employees.

In a statement on Wednesday, November 9, Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took responsibility for one of the biggest layoffs in recent times and the first in Meta’s 18-year history.

Also read | Facebook parent Meta lays off over 11,000 employees

‘This is a sad moment’

Zuckerberg said he had not correctly calculated the post-Covid trends. “At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments,” he said.

He admitted that the boom experienced by his company during the pandemic failed to sustain for long. “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected,” he added. 

Also read | Meta, parent company of Facebook, planning first major layoff in its history: Report

Meta shares have lost more than two-thirds of their value. “This is a sad moment, and there’s no way around that… To those who are staying, I know this is a difficult time for you too. Not only are we saying goodbye to people we’ve worked closely with, but many of you also feel uncertainty about the future. I want you to know that we’re making these decisions to make sure our future is strong,” he wrote.

Are the fired employees being compensated?

Much like employees losing access to their company accounts during the Twitter layoffs just weeks ago, Meta is going to take a similar route, with the difference of informing staff ahead of time, instead of just locking them out of their company IDs — like Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk did. 

Also read | Jack Dorsey in text with Elon Musk called Facebook ‘swamp of despair’

“We made the decision to remove access to most Meta systems for people leaving today given the amount of access to sensitive information,” the Meta CEO said. The laid-off employees were able to access their accounts to say goodbye to their colleagues for the last time. 

Meta will also be offering compensation to all the employees who were impacted by the layoff, including:

1) Sixteen weeks of base pay along with two additional weeks for every year of service, without any cap.

2) Remaining Paid time off (PTO) can be redeemed.

3) Healthcare for the staff and their families for the next six months.

4) They will receive their November 15 vesting.

5) Three months of career support will be provided by a third-party vendor. This includes access to unpublished job leads.

6) Immigration support.