Facebook tells managers to identify workers who are ‘coasting’ and ‘low performers’ in leaked memo as Mark Zuckerberg gets tough for the first time and pledges to ‘weed out people who shouldn’t be here’ to cut costs

• The move is a dramatic change of tone for the social media giant which once set the tone for the relaxed and laid-back attitude that characterized Silicon Valley
• The news comes as Facebook’s value has plummeted in the past months – declining nearly 52 per cent since the start of 2022
• The social media giant’s primary source of income has been compromised in recent years as its privacy policies and use of user data have face scrutiny 

Mark Zuckerberg is finally getting tough on staff as managers are ordered to oust ‘coasting’ employees amidst a devastating downturn in value.

An internal memo sent on Friday by Facebook’s head of engineering, Maher Saba, directed engineering managers to report anyone who ‘needs support’ to human resources by 5pm Monday, according to the Information. 

‘If a direct report is coasting or is a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,’ Saba wrote in the scathing message, ‘As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta.’

The move is a dramatic change of tone for the social media giant – recently rebranded as Meta – which was well known in its early days for setting the tone for the relaxed and laid-back corporate attitude that came to characterize Silicon Valley.

The news comes as Facebook’s value has plummeted in the past months – declining nearly 52 per cent since the start of 2022 – amidst an ongoing reckoning of the company’s privacy policies that has gutted its longtime method of making money by selling user data.

‘If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,’ Mark Zuckerberg told employees during a companywide call in late June

‘If a direct report is coasting or is a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,’ Facebook’s head of engineering, Maher Saba (above), wrote

‘If I had to bet, I’d say that this might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history,’ Mark Zuckerberg told employees during a companywide call in late June.

The 38-year-old Facebook founder said during the call that he expected to reduce engineer hiring plans by at least 30 per cent as the company looks for ways to cut costs, according to Reuters.

On the call, Zuckerberg indicated that one of those cost cutting methods would be rooting out dead weight. 

‘Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,’ he said.

It was not immediately clear what led Zuckerberg to believe there was dead-weight in the company’s staff. 

The memo from Saba appeared to be one of the first steps in that process, with many employees expressing fear that their jobs may be on the line in the face of layoffs. 

‘The reaction from folks that have seen this is that this will be used to create a bunch [of] ‘performance improvement plans’ that will result in mass layoffs,’ an anonymous individual close to the matter told The Washington Post.

Employees are also worried about a reduction in promotions and shrunken bonuses, according to the Post.

‘I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,’ Zuckerberg told employees on the June call.

Facebook employees are also worried about a reduction in promotions and shrunken bonuses, according to the The Washington Post

At the end of 2021, Facebook reported that it had lost daily users for the first time since it was started 18 years ago.

The downturn comes after Apple introduced privacy policies on its devices intended to curb outside parties’ ability to gather and sell user’s data. Apps – including Facebook – were forced to ask people whether they wanted their activity tracked so they could receive targeted ads. Many declined, and gutted Facebook of that cornerstone source of income.

The company has also faced growing competition from other social media apps like TikTok, despite leaning heavily into its own short form video platform, Reels.

Profits at Facebook have also declined since it was rebranded Meta, following Zuckerberg’s bet the next era of the internet will be a virtual-reality based immersive experience known as the metaverse.

Zuckerberg has reportedly funned billions into making the metaverse a reality and ensuring that the company is at its forefront.

Other cost-cutting measures at Facebook offices have been the elimination of laundry and dry-cleaning services employees previously enjoyed, along with moving back the time free dinners are offered to late-working employees from 6pm tp 6:30pm, according to The New York Times. 

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