Worried about the future of Meta in a difficult economic context, Mark Zuckerberg spoke to his company’s employees. The creator of Facebook intends to be firm.
Are we heading for a global economic crisis? One after the other, the big tech companies seem to be preparing for this scenario.
All of them are publishing disappointing results and indicate that they expect worse in a context of war in Ukraine, of Covid-19 still present, of shortage of components and of rising prices everywhere in the world. GAFAMs, which broke records during the pandemic, seem less confident than before and plan to reduce their hiring until they can measure the reality of the situation, while tightening the screw on certain points such as telecommuting.
Meta, too, is expecting a difficult few months. In a long and well-documented article, The Verge recounts the Q&A session organized by Mark Zuckerberg on June 30. The Facebook boss, who had not participated in this exercise for several months, is very pessimistic.
A call for resignations that disturbs
“Realistically, there are probably a lot of people in the company who should not be here. This little sentence, pronounced by Mark Zuckerberg to explain that his company must prepare for a complicated period, was not appreciated by Meta employees.
I think some of you might say this place is not for you. And I’m fine with that self-selection,” adds the company’s creator, who likely hopes that employees will leave on their own so they don’t have to lay off.
I think some of you might say this place is not for you. And that self-selection is fine with me.
This sentence reflects the overall mood at Meta where the majority of employees are now not convinced that the company will have a bright future, while the rise of TikTok and the damage caused by Apple’s anti-tracking policy still have an impact today.
Meta has suddenly lost billions of dollars and its plans to revive itself, such as the metaverse, will probably not pay off until the end of the decade (if they ever do). The group has also just raised the price of its most popular virtual reality headset, the Quest 2, when it had previously hoped to make VR affordable.
On Workplace, Meta’s employee-only Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s statement drew strong reactions: “I don’t see people around me slacking off or anything,” confessed one employee.
Honestly, hearing ‘some of you don’t belong here’ from a leader instead of ‘here are the challenges, let’s get together and overcome them’ is disheartening and maybe not the best way to get that message out.” The authority of Mark Zuckerberg, who has in fact canceled some vacations and is less open to telecommuting, is disputed. Some are also concerned about Meta’s new policy of hiring fewer interns than before, at the risk of letting young talent leave for the competition.
Meta’s challenges
Despite this, 77% of Meta employees would still recommend the company as a place to work, proving that not everything is 100% negative.
Employees are still concerned about the new work culture that Zuckerberg wants to see, and he’s gone from being a telecommuting advocate to denouncing employees for taking personal appointments in the middle of the day and no longer working efficiently. The period of economic instability worries Meta, which at best expects an upturn in a year.
In the next few months, Meta is also expected to undergo a major management reshuffle. Mark Zuckerberg will stay, but his right-hand men will change. Sheryl Sandberg is leaving, after 14 years in the number 2 chair. Meta, on the other hand, will continue to focus on a metaverse that it sees as the successor to the modern Internet.
