Posted on 02/11/2025 5:21:59 AM PST by Red Badger
Several Meta employees who said they received positive performance ratings in their mid-year reviews last year had their jobs cut Monday, as the company let go of nearly 4,000 workers in its latest round of job reductions.
Business Insider spoke to eight terminated employees, who said they received “At or Above Expectations” ratings — the middle tier in Meta’s three-level mid-year review system — in their 2024 assessments. These employees said they were surprised to learn their ratings had been downgraded to “Meets Most,” one of the lower tiers in Meta’s year-end performance system that refers to meeting most, but not all, expectations and could make them eligible for Monday’s cuts. They asked to be anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss internal company matters.
The job cuts stem from Meta’s push to let go of roughly 5% of its lowest-performing employees, according to internal guidance sent to managers in January. While Meta framed these cuts as targeting underperforming workers, internal guidance sent last month by Hillary Champion, Meta’s director of people experience, and viewed by BI, allowed managers to include employees from higher performance tiers if they couldn’t meet their reduction targets from lower-rated employees alone.
Many employees said they were caught off guard by their inclusion in the cuts, as this guidance had previously only been shared with managers, not with the broader workforce.
“When I received the email I was surprised by it mostly because I have a very solid performance history and no indicators of the last six months of performance problems,” one affected employee told BI.
Meta began its year-end performance review process for 2024 in December, although most employees wouldn’t learn their final ratings until the coming weeks.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing to streamline Meta’s workforce as the company pours billions into artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The cuts could become an annual event as Meta aims to regularly trim what it considers its lowest performers. Meanwhile, Meta plans to ramp up the hiring of machine learning engineers to work on AI.
Meta did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Meta downgraded some employees’ ratings Multiple employees told BI that they felt frustrated that Meta had publicly framed the layoffs as targeting consistently low performers when some of those affected had previously received strong performance reviews.
In posts on Workplace, Meta’s internal communications platform, several laid-off employees shared their performance histories, according to screenshots viewed by BI. One employee who said they were “unexpectedly” terminated posted documentation showing they had consistently met or exceeded expectations for four years before being downgraded to “Meets Most” in late 2024. Another employee reported being cut shortly after returning from parental leave, despite receiving an “At or Above Expectations” rating in early 2024.
“I am super confused how I got terminated,” they wrote. “I still think this is an error.”
The sudden downgrade in performance ratings left many employees feeling misrepresented by Meta’s public stance on the layoffs. Some employees worried that being branded as a “low performer” publicly could harm future employment prospects.
“The hardest part is Meta publicly stating they’re cutting low performers, so it feels like we have the scarlet letter on our backs,” another employee told BI. “People need to know we’re not underperformers.”
“I would certainly challenge Meta’s narrative about cutting only low performers,” another affected employee said. “I have a really, really difficult time believing I was a low performer based on past feedback I was given by my manager.”
Another employee said their manager had given them no indication that their job was at risk.
“We were told by leadership that if we would be impacted by this then we would already be expecting it, based on conversations our managers should have been having with us in our weekly one-on-ones,” one former employee said. “But I was completely blindsided by this. My manager had been telling me that I have been doing great and did not provide any areas to be worked on. My manager even said that I would be fine and not impacted.”
Likewise, another worker who received an “Exceeds Expectations” rating in their mid-year review said they were surprised to be “dropped two ratings” to “Meets Most” without explanation.
“We are not even able to see the feedback that our manager wrote for us,” they said.
If you’re a current or former Meta employee, or have an insight to share about the company, contact Pranav Dixit from a nonwork device securely on Signal at +1-408-905-9124 or email him at pranavdixit@protonmail.com.Reach Jyoti Mann via email at jmann@businessinsider.com or via Signal at jyotimann.11. Get in touch with Hugh Langley at hlangley@businessinsider.com or reach him on Signal at hughlangley.01
The post Meta’s job cuts surprised some employees who said they weren’t low-performers appeared first on Business Inside
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Maybe they were just terrible to have around.
Welcome to real life.
I bet they were annoying HR
That’s what I’m thinking.
Other employees were complaining about them for one reason or another.
Nuisance and annoying...............
They ones who think highly of themselves are usually the worst performers.
Dunning-Kruger Effect in action................😉
“You’ve been 9-boxed, congratulations!”
You could be God’s gift, but that doesn’t mean your employer will keep you.
Like I said, welcome to real life where the world owes nobody a living.
No, welcome to life under a narcissistic prick like Zuckerberg.
A decent company run by decent people wouldn’t do this.
So stop apologizing for garbage like him.
The SOB preens himself as some sort of humanitarian but the reality is that enough is never enough for him, and he doesn’t care who he has to screw to get it.
Meta fixed the glitch................
I’m not apologizing for anyone.
Like the late, great Rush Limbaigh, I live in Realville.
And in Realville nobody owes anyone else a living.
Limbaugh...
Sorry, Rush.
“That’s what I’m thinking. Other employees were complaining about them for one reason or another. Nuisance and annoying.”
Yep, there’s a lot more to keeping one’s job than just being technically skilled. Something that learned the hard way decades ago, but then paid off big-time later.
For folks who want job security, here’s a suggestion...
Move to China.
You can have a permanent job as a slave of the state.
But I’m betting they won’t do that.
Go figure.
I was once in a position where the company was deciding to change the group I was in from college-grad minimum to anyone-off-the-street solely for cost savings.
It was clear when come review time I was ranked as exceeds or significantly exceeds expectations on the five breakout evaluation points but my overall score was a barely-meets expectation, which meant no pay raise.
I took the hint and changed careers. And watched the previous department fall apart, with two levels of management removed and back to hiring college grads.
As a good performer you’ll have no problem bouncing back .
Most low performers don’t know they’re low performers. Hence Dunning-Kruger Effect.
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