Meta, Google learn the art of the quiet layoff
- Reference: 1663802579
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/21/meta_google_layoffs/
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It's still essentially a layoff, albeit small, and it's less likely to draw attention or get widely reported. It's akin to IBM, Oracle, and other companies that, in the past, have made little, gradual cuts here and there to fly a greater overall layoff plan under the radar. It may also foreshadow a greater cull of staff at some point.
Troubles at Meta are well known, with the Facebook parent this year encountering a dip in [1]revenue and [2]daily active users at one point, while admitting it torched $10 billion on metaverse stuff and that its [3]ad sales have been substantially hurt by Apple's drive to let iOS users opt out of online tracking. The business also ballooned in size during the pandemic, arguably becoming bloated and unwieldy.
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In response, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on his mega-corp to shape up, turn up the heat, and lose the dead weight, which led to things like the [5]disbanding of its Responsible Innovation Team (RIT) earlier this month.
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Here's where those quiet layoffs come in.
Meta has a policy of giving employees – like those in RIT – 30 days to find a new role at the company, after which point they're out of a job if they somehow haven't secured a seat. Because tech darlings like Meta usually set a relatively high hiring bar, it's assumed staff are generally smart enough to keep and will find another team somewhere.
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According to Meta employees and managers who spoke to the Wall Street Journal for [9]a report out today, this process is pretty typical – but something has changed: where previously it was normal to fall quickly into a new role, "workers with good reputations and strong performance reviews are being pushed out on a regular basis."
Whereas reshuffles happened previously at Meta without too many people losing their jobs, now even competent, capable ones are being shown the door, in dribs and drabs. It's reported that Facebook wants to cut costs by at least 10 percent, which mean reduced employment. It's not just the duds being let go, but normal staff, too.
[10]Twilio more than decimates staff, CEO says it grew too fast
[11]Snap to lay off one in five employees as losses mount
[12]Ninefold increase in startup layoffs in Q2 follows economic uncertainty
[13]Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Voyager to pay $1.6m bonus to key staff
Over at Google, [14]roughly half of the 100-plus staff at its Area 120 startup incubator were this month given 90 days to find other jobs within the mega-corp. In March, there was also internal pressure to give more than 100 people facing the chop in Google Cloud 180 days to find new teams, rather than 60. As with Meta, it's expected that Googlers will find other teams to slot into.
A spokesperson for Google told the WSJ almost 95 percent of workers who expressed an interest in staying found new roles in time. Or, to put it another way, more than five percent didn't and were axed. No doubt other parts of the workforce will be, or have been, trimmed in this way.
The cuts at Google come not long after CEO Sundar Pichai said productivity at the web giant had to be [15]upped by twenty percent , a call that came only three months after the corporation [16]slowed hiring after going on a recruitment spree during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Per the WSJ's story, Meta had 83,553 employees at the end of Q2 2022, 32 percent more than the same time last year. Google parent company Alphabet counted 174,014 heads in Q2, a 20.8 percent increase from the same period in 2021. Now both companies are seemingly struggling to handle or get the most out of those new folks.
Google's CFO said earlier this year that headcount was the [18]primary driver of expense for the company, and leadership at Facebook and elsewhere have made similar statements. Amazon's CFO [19]said that a Q1 hiring push amid the Omicron-phase of the coronavirus outbreak had left his company overstaffed as well.
Meta seemed to be taking a different approach to layoffs, with Zuckerberg directing managers in June to [20]aggressively terminate low-performing employees. As we wrote then, this was quite possibly a way for Meta to push through some layoffs without actually admitting it was doing so, which draws bad press and other negative attention.
This time around it looks as though Google and Meta have learned a lesson: don't dump people and fuel layoff rumors, or put out statements confirming as much. Instead, just merge and close teams, tell the press you're reassigning workers, shrug when displaced employees ask about those roles, and let them time out of the system a couple of months later. ®
PS: This article was written from a US perspective. We know that in other places, like the UK at least, companies by law have to make some effort, however token, to find you other work within the org if you're made redundant, generally speaking. America, not so much.
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/28/meta_pours_cash_into_servers/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/03/facebook_q4_2021/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/06/apple_app_transparency_ad_revenues/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yyvd2SFVzkctuCeyAhdC@AAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/09/meta_disbands_responsible_innovation_team/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yyvd2SFVzkctuCeyAhdC@AAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yyvd2SFVzkctuCeyAhdC@AAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yyvd2SFVzkctuCeyAhdC@AAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/meta-and-google-are-cutting-staff-just-dont-mention-layoffs-11663778729
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/14/struggling_pandemic_darling_twilio_lays/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/31/snap_layoffs/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/16/ninefold_increase_in_startup_layoffs/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/25/voyager_bankrupt_payouts/
[14] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-14/google-makes-cuts-to-area-120-product-experiment-group
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/07/google_ceo_sundar_pichai_productivity/?td=keepreading
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/google_hiring_slowing/
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yyvd2SFVzkctuCeyAhdC@AAAANQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/tech_layoff_hiring/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/alibaba_cuts_jobs/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/12/meta_sackings/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"increase productivity"
How? Double unpaid overtime? Formally go "80 hours/week or gtfo"? Force employees to divorce their spouses and give children and pets up for adoption? Build capsule hotels and force employees to remain on-site?
Note I'm not even listing Google's vaunted "20% of hours are for personal projects", IIUC that dies a long time ago, if not officially then in reality.
It does occur to me how quickly the clocks have been turned back. Executives everywhere must be clinking their champagne glasses. Only within a few months we went from a changed work reality and the Great Resignation back to "work, serf, or be fired to be replaced with another serf who works twice the hours for half the pay". If it's the Ukraine War then the bastards should be thanking Putin. In sociopathy they are birds of a feather.
30 days? Maybe, maybe not.
Good discussion.
You state "Because places like Meta usually set a relatively high hiring bar, it's assumed staff are generally smart enough to keep and will find another team somewhere." Maybe, maybe not. When I was a manager at [large tech company whose name is a three-letter acronym....yes, that one], it was made clear that no one identified for a resource action would -ever- be allowed to take another position.
"resource action" - outed
Well, we're not including IBM in "places like Meta" ;-)
C.
Could be worse...
I worked at a state job once where there was a policy that if you were laid off, you could apply for a position currently held by a less senior employee. That boosted morale during layoffs.
Sunday Pinch-a-Loaf, Baldie Zuckertart et al.
"We know that in...the UK..., companies by law have to make some effort, however token, to find you other work within the org if you're made redundant, generally speaking. America, not so much."
For the Brits: Please sound off on how well companies treat your redundant behind.
In the U.S., you are on your own. Company efforts are usually window-dressing.
Sunday Pinch-a-Loaf, Baldie Zuckertart et al. copy each other, like flies on a pile. It is all about getting away with layoffs quietly .
We tech workers need to shout more.
Smart people respond to whatever incentives are present. Google et al go out of their way to hire smart people. As they wind back on remuneration and job security, expect the best to leave. Area 120 was set up to specifically attract entrepreneurial innovators. Now Google is cutting loose the very people most likely to generate future products. A CFO obsessed with expenses rather than profit is in charge. We all know how this ends: HP.
The smart money will trade into these stocks expecting a short term lift in profits from good people leaving, then exit at the peak just befire the long term damage become apparent.
An old trick in the US
Its a common trick, especially among larger companies which, despite their size, are structured as numerous business units. When your unit is closed or consolidated you are invited to find work elsewhere in the organization. Not necessarily at the same facility, of course. You get a few months to sort this out, and if you fail to be accommodated then you're literally redundant.
What never ceases to amaze me is why employees think they have any kind of status in the company. Sometimes they're difficult to replace -- actually, if you're smart you'll try to get into this position -- so you have a measure of job security. But for the most part in the US employment is "at will" and I'd guess in the New, Improved, Brexit Britain the same flexibility will become the norm, if its not already.