17 ms·
Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'
- toe666nail 2y ago[flagged]
- htrp 2y agoPutting all of the employees on notice to keep their heads down and do their jobs without comment or complaint.
- reginald78 2y agoShould make all those people complaining about the DEI change shut up, the timing of the announcement is so close it is hard not to think they're related.
- this_user 2y agoOr maybe the idea was to give those people an incentive to leave on their own, so you don't have to fire them.
- gedpeck 2y agoMeta is embracing free speech while suppressing it!
- geodel 2y agoThat's paid speech. Speaking about Meta at large while being paid by it. However if they leave Meta and then speak about Meta I think that would be free speech.
- gedpeck 2y agoYou miss a very important point. In the U.S. freedom of speech specifically refers to limits that the government can impose on stifling speech. It does not apply to Facebook, Meta, Twitter or any other such platform. My point stands. Meta is suppressing speech while embracing it. It just happens that the suppression is welcomed by the group whose speech is being embraced.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- geodel 2y agoMissing those days when post lunch walks by Meta employees could turn into walkouts on issue of the day.
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoEarlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42698568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42698568
- LucidLynx 2y agoAs AI is everything right now, did they asked to Llama how to solve the situation...?
- avgDev 2y ago"Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'h1b workers'".
- asveikau 2y agoPerformance reviews are bullshit. Being a "low performer" at Meta might mean you are not a suck-up, or that you have a sense of ethics.
- Arainach 2y agoPerformance reviews aren't bullshit - it's crucial to have an objective (as objective as possible) system for measuring performance both to reward your high performers and to understand your low performers whether to provide support or to document reasons for firing them. Several kinds of performance management system such as mandatory percentages for each rating level ARE bullshit, but without performance management of some sort any organization with more than 3 people will fail.
- asveikau 2y agoYou failed the moment you said objective. Any such system needs to acknowledge right off the bat that these assessments are subjective, subject to human error and re-enforcing bias etc. Otherwise you're just high on your own supply.
- glimshe 2y agoThis is a strawman. While a fully objective evaluation is hard or impossible in most cases, it doesn't mean that it can't be somewhat objective. The extremes are pretty easy to identify - amazing performers who implement lots of features with few bugs and who are easy to work with vs the asshole who gets nothing done. The difficulty is in the middle, and while subjectivity is unavoidable, you can use objective metrics as data points. Also, a well built subjective review process is better than no process, for instance, using peers and customer opinions as input.
- ineedaj0b 2y agofalse
- JohnMakin 2y ago> it's crucial to have an objective (as objective as possible) system for measuring performance both to reward your high performers and to understand your low performers whether to provide support or to document reasons for firing them. This isn't how it ever, ever plays out. Also, most companies implementing this clearly are doing so out of some sort of compliance, whether it be SOC or otherwise. So yea, lots of times it actually is total performative bullshit. Congrats on finding the .000000000001% of cases where it isn't, if you are being serious here.
- Bluecobra 2y agoNext up: We need you to come in 5 days a week. Think of our culture!
- marcosdumay 2y agoWasn't that the previous one?
- n144q 2y agoWrong company
- ndesaulniers 2y agoThe creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
- defrost 2y agoYeah, but, next years VR will be better . . . ( Adding legs will make it easier at least )
- ndesaulniers 2y agoKeep nailing legs to a dog until you can claim it's a spider.
- defrost 2y agoOthers may not accept that overdue claim: https://27bslash6.com/overdue.html https://27bslash6.com/overdue.html
- marcosdumay 2y agoIndeed. It's Amazon that has been making all the noise about it, not Meta. But this thread has become quite interesting.
- GiorgioG 2y agoThe beatings will continue until morale improves.
- brink 2y agoBeing stuck carrying coworkers that don't perform sucks. Firing under-performers is what healthy businesses do.
- GiorgioG 2y agoThat wouldn't require a quota (5%) nor an announcement.
- spacemadness 2y agoI’m amazed at how some engineers cheer for layoffs thinking they’re safe. The naivety really is something to behold. Or maybe they’re bots. Unclear.
- nateglims 2y agoDid Facebook not do performance reviews until now?
- psunavy03 2y agoFiring an arbitrary percentage as opposed to grading to a standard is not.
- asdev 2y agohow much more confirmation do we need that we are in a recession?
- webdood90 2y agomore like unchecked greed to me
- thatguy0900 2y agoFacebook is trying to cozy up to Donald Trump, someone that a large portion of their employees hate. Could just as easily be to keep them in line
- laidoffamazon 2y agoIt says that they’re back filling the roles… you know that doesn’t happen in a recession right?
- yoyohello13 2y agoWhat are you talking about? The Oligarchs are doing great!
- mikeyouse 2y agoThankfully, big tech hiring whims have very little to do with the 'real' economy. Job growth remains strong, GDP is still very much positive, inflation is low..
- prettyblocks 2y agoI remember when we were in a recession post 9/11 prices were dropping left and right, but right now prices continue to increase and people seem to be paying them. Can we really say that's a notable decline in economic activity?
- tdb7893 2y agoMy experience is that prices are increasing in required goods (food, housing, healthcare, education) so some people can't decrease spending. I know a lot of people who have cut spending for non-essential things but it's just that the cost of essential things have increased to keep their spending constant
- yodsanklai 2y agoIt seems Zuck is turning into Elon. What's next? closing the European offices? forcing people to return to the office? relocating HQ to Texas?
- ColdTakes 2y agohttps://www.wired.com/story/meta-elon-musks-lead-trust-safety-billionaire-friendly-texas/ https://www.wired.com/story/meta-elon-musks-lead-trust-safet...
- voidfunc 2y agoEveryone who is smart see's which way the winds are blowing and it isn't in the direction of "more liberal". The US is looking at a cultural reset back into the mid to mid-late 20th century.
- gordon_freeman 2y agoYes. Reminds me of this conversation in Shogun: Yabushige: “How does it feel to shape the wind to your will?” Toranaga: “I don’t control the wind. I only study it.”
- SketchySeaBeast 2y agoIs the 30's "mid-century"?
- voidfunc 2y agoI dont think we're heading for the 30's and arguably the 1910-40s were probably more progressive than the mid-century both artistically and culturally compared to their preceding years. I think a lot of people don't remember how conservative the US was between the 50s and 90s. A lot of the stuff we consider acceptable or OK today was really not tolerated at all in public. See, for example, LGBTQ acceptance, minorities and women in positions of power, welfare state etc.
- int_19h 2y ago
- TypingOutBugs 2y agoPart of Zucks plan to stop hiring mid-level engineers this year (as he said on JRE)? I am very very skeptical of this idea - what do you all think?
- jsheard 2y agoWho are we to doubt Zuckerbergs judgement when his last big pivot to the Metaverse was such a success? Let him cook. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/22/mark-zuckerberg-envisions-1-billion-people-in-the-metaverse.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/22/mark-zuckerberg-envisions-1-...
- chaosharmonic 2y agoYou mean the one he took "personal responsibility" for, while laying off >10000 people and conveniently still having a job for himself?
- sadjad 2y ago"But make no mistake. Though they're the ones leaving, it is I who must remain and bear the heavy burden of their failure." ~GB
- neilv 2y agoThe "Silicon Valley" show had many brilliant moments.
- desertrider12 2y agoImagine if avatar Gavin Belson had done the "metaverse legs" product reveal, with the animation running at 10 frames/second and a few legless avatars in the audience throwing up confetti. It would be almost too ridiculous to put in the show because the show itself would look like it was being cheap with the effects. But Meta had spent $36 billion on the metaverse at this point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njvp-E8gzqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njvp-E8gzqA
- ks2048 2y agoThis must be the "masculine energy" Zuckerberg was referring to.
- yoyohello13 2y agoThis is clearly to cull the "wrong thinking" employees.
- burningChrome 2y agoWhich is odd considering the "wrong thinking" people could never get hired there in the last two decades, so what's really going on here?
- r00fus 2y agoYou seem to be under the impression that "wrong think" is in some way consistent or unchanging.
- jayd16 2y agoJust when I thought maybe I could give Meta kudos for some respectable VR/game engineering and some open AI research, they seem to bend over backwards to keep a terrible reputation.
- anothername12 2y agoYou're not getting fired now, you're getting "moved out" or "exited"
- artistic_regard 2y ago[dead]
- shombaboor 2y agothe 5% who didn't watch enough MMA or improve their PR in the deadlift
- robobob 2y agoDont bring deadlifts into this
- jamesblonde 2y agoIt's all cool. Zuck is just riffin' /s
- cbsmith 2y agoI have a strong suspicion that recent pivots are intended to drive attrition, and this just confirms my thinking.
- crowcroft 2y agoThis is your regular reminder that tech is essentially a fiefdom. Just because you aren't a serf doesn't mean you aren't a peasant.
- artistic_regard 2y ago[dead]
- dgrin91 2y agoAh yes, the peasants who are free to leave at any time, get nice salaries and a nice severance at the end, plus a ton of benefits. Oh and at FB many can still WFH. Big tech has problems, but lets not exaggerate - that undermines progress.
- crowcroft 2y agoSure, I'd rather be a peasant in big tech than a king in almost any other era. Especially in companies like Meta with dual class shareholders though, I don't think it's that much of an exaggeration to say the CEOs are essentially kings. That doesn't mean the work environment or lifestyle you get working at these places is good or bad, people just need to have a realistic expectations about the governance behind these things though.
- Apocryphon 2y agoAt least the peasants got their own offices
- mempko 2y agoThis argument was used by southern slave holders to argue their system treated people better than the north. That their workers were treated better because they were property while the north could cast people aside and replace them once they were done with them. Slavery is still slavery no matter how nice you arrange their conditions. Serfs are still serfs if they sit in bean bag chairs.
- grajaganDev 2y agoYou sure aren't a lord. But many have been tricked into thinking that they are.
- akmarinov 2y ago[flagged]
- IRNHan 2y ago[flagged]
- forty 2y agoWhy do people still have accounts on Twitter and Facebook already? Those reactionary billionaires are clearly offensive to humans and we should collectively tell them to f*ck off
- tjpnz 2y agoWhy do people still visit a dealer for their next hit? Those reactionary pushers are clearly offensive to humans and we should collectively tell them to fuck off.
- barbazoo 2y agoPeople either aren't aware or they just don't care.
- senordevnyc 2y agoOr maybe they just disagree...
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoThe internet was once made up of curious, ambitious, discerning types. Early adopters. We have to put that mental model behind us. As more of the world came online, the population of the internet has become made up of mostly passive and mediocre people. The MySpace to Facebook type of migration won't happen anymore. Too many people aren't aware or don't care.
- ineedaj0b 2y agowithout freespeech we wouldn't have had the gay movement when we did. you should put freespeech above of a lot of things, weigh it much higher than you think and i'm sad to see liberal friends ignorant to US history. on top of that, your premise suggests billionaires should be recalcitrant forces and billionaires should go along with the masses. most of the them made their money1 seeing opportunities no one else did and executing on them. they are more likely to have an 'edge' in seeing the future even if we removed their fortunes. to be in the top 5% of global income you need to make more 30k a year. you are likely part of the rich. eat the rich etc. should i listen to you? 1. https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/billionaires-self-made https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/billionaires-self-made
- k33n 2y agoZuck is doing great things over there!
- tedivm 2y agoIt sounds like they're laying off 5% of the company, but are also firing the lowest 5% of employees without eliminating the role. > Meta is set to cut about 5% of its workforce, focusing on the company’s lowest-performing workers, CNBC confirmed Tuesday. > Another 5% of the 2024 employee base “who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance rating” will also be cut, Bloomberg reported, citing an internal memo. And a direct quote from Zucky: > I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster. We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle, with the intention of back filling these roles in 2025.
- hnthrowaway6543 2y agolast quote is the key point and tracks with the other Vibe Shift press releases Mark has been on about. i read this as, there was a fear that laying off underperformers without very long PIP processes would be dangerous to the company, now he thinks it's less likely given the political landscape, so let's fire them ASAP rather than drawing it out.
- silisili 2y ago"political landscape" was the reason he gave for ending the various DEI programs. Taken together, one could read it as getting rid of people those programs had been protecting?
- biztos 2y agoI'm not really clear on how the "Vibe Shift" thing is going to make this easier, but doesn't it seem like now is a great time to be doing "backfills" if you pay FAANG money? Setting the expectation that you can be canned quickly if you aren't a good backfill will probably be a useful filter. It's not like they can get rid of all the dead weight, but every 5% helps.
- orsenthil 2y agoThat is 5% of 67,317, around 3700 people, folks.
- linotype 2y agoYeah, so around 50-100 small companies equivalent.
- VirusNewbie 2y agoI feel like people are missing part of the memo where he said they will backfill all the roles. You can say it's not fair or cruel but this isn't a layoff. They want to churn (maybe for cheaper talent? Maybe for H1-Bs?)
- declan_roberts 2y agoI would think Zuck is smart enough to read the room regarding H1-b.
- trog 2y agoIsn't the room saying H1Bs are going to be protected from the very top regardless what a few malcontents have to say?
- int_19h 2y agoWhy would you trust what Zuckerberg says?
- aprilthird2021 2y agoBackfill (with cheaper eng) the roles. Meta is already filled with H1Bs. They are probably the model utilizer of H1B visas. They pay them all really well and the employee base is truly global, not just all from one country.
- dinobones 2y agouhhhhhh.. Ok, they’re from two countries, but mostly one.
- aprilthird2021 2y agoNo they're not. You clearly don't work at Meta or haven't. My team is all H1Bs, not a single one from the two countries you're referring to. Also those two countries make up half the world population so if you're truly hiring global talent they should make up half that group
- lacker 2y agoWhen I was an engineering manager there, engineering leadership described performance reviews as, in a large well run engineering organization, you'll probably be firing 5-10% of your employees every year for low performance. (Well, "non regrettable attrition", which includes people who quit when they get pipped.) Lower than 5% at scale would be a red flag, not necessarily wrong, you don't want to "stack rank" with a quota and force managers to fire people who shouldn't want to be fired, but if you have 100 engineers in a department and only one of them gets fired in a year, probably the director is making a mistake. So, I'm sure this won't be the only firing for the year at Meta. But this doesn't really seem like it's very far away from normal practices.
- tqi 2y agoYeah 5% is a very weird number. Why not just stop over hiring?
- bdcravens 2y agoFear. Effects on stock price during when talent is a hot commodity. Besides, all those Associate Directors of Nonengineering Engineers of Developer Conference Swag Acquisition need to eat too.
- nateglims 2y agoThe goal is to always be bringing in new talent and cutting lowest performers to increase productivity. They want the new talent and don’t care about the low performers at a personal level.
- blsapologist42 2y agoThe goal is to replace that 5% with new hires, resulting in higher average performance. It has nothing to do with total hiring amount.
- zhengyi13 2y ago... and correspondingly lower salaries.
- jhack 2y agoWatching Meta's downfall unfolding in real-time wasn't something I had on my 2025 bingo card.
- barbazoo 2y agoSeems like they're doing pretty well by capitalistic standards, no?
- misiti3780 2y agowhat are you talking about?
- blsapologist42 2y agoI think most companies would be jealous of this sort of "downfall".
- gopher2000 2y agoLol record high stock price, fiercest competitor banned, and cutting 5% of under performers. They're thriving from a business vitality perspective.
- wnevets 2y agoIs the person who though it was a great idea to spend billions of dollars on the metaverse gonna be put on a performance plan or are performance reviews only meant for the peasants?
- aithrowawaycomm 2y ago> Below is Zuckeberg’s[sic] internal memo, which CNBC obtained. Meta is working on building some of the most important technologies of the world. AI, glasses as the next computing platform and the future of social media. It's very funny that he included the Ray-Bans here. Maybe it will be the next iPhone, but along with Meta Worlds (or whatever it's called), Zuckerberg simply goes all-in on dumb sci-fi toys. Considering this is pure childish impulse - VR itself didn't make the top 3 in the memo - I wonder if he'll rename the company to Specs Technologies.
- yellow_lead 2y agoAnd he criticized apple for not innovating past the iPhone.
- lostmsu 2y agoI agree. The glasses would be useful if they weren't tied so much to Facebook properties. Which also happen to be very buggy. I bought mine last month and will probably return them this week.
- tqi 2y ago> “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said in the memo Doesn't this beg the question of why the bar wasn't higher the whole time?
- r00fus 2y agoTranslation: our move to force everyone back to office didn't cause as much attrition as we'd have liked. We will need to turn the screws in a different way.
- mywittyname 2y agoI'm not trying to apologize for Meta here, but sometimes companies make bad hiring decisions, or good workers get lazy/apathetic.
- sixothree 2y agoOr have children causing distractions, or get injured etc.
- yard2010 2y agoOr having their house burned down with not enough PTO remaining..
- allenu 2y agoI can imagine also that in some situations where there's a large volume of work to be done and you don't need a high performer to get some of it done, you'd rather have the low performer than nobody in that position so you can make progress.
- blsapologist42 2y agoThey used to have a higher bar before 2020, but since then it's been a bit soft. I think this is mostly a return to that earlier time.
- henning 2y ago2025 is going to be the year the metaverse really takes off. I can feel it. People definitely want Zuck's shitty VR 3D walled garden with worse graphics than a Nintendo Wii.
- neilv 2y ago> We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle, with the intention of back filling these roles in 2025. Are they effectively saying that anyone terminated this year is probably for poor performance? Usually there's more ambiguity, like changing business priorities.
- bsnnkv 2y agoI really don't see Meta's social media products being able to compete with new challengers without lobbying to have them banned, even less so if they keep driving away talent. The migration of US TikTok users to Xiaohongshu this week, to the point where it is #1 on the US app store while still having half of its UI in Mandarin has been particularly eye opening.
- jerojero 2y agoThe same way people migrated from Twitter to... mastodon to ultimately settle on bluesky or go back to twitter. This reaction is very rushed and I don't think it's going to be very lasting, I'd expect people to go to reels/shorts until maybe another (western, american probably but could be european) alternative appears. These people are up for grabs, they're not going to stay in Xiaohongshu.
- bsnnkv 2y agoI think the stickiness of the FYP algorithm is not to be underestimated. Xiaohongshu's FYP algorithm is at least as good as TikTok's, and American social media companies (until now) have shown that they either cannot replicate an FYP algorithm of this quality or refuse to for business reasons. It's very hard to go back to an app with a poor FYP algorithm (ie. Reels, Shorts) after using an app with a good FYP algorithm, and this, along with a knee-jerk reaction against Meta for its perceived role in lobbying for the "TikTok ban" will make capturing ex-TikTok users an uphill struggle for Meta's products.
- aprilthird2021 2y agoI don't think this is driving away talent, tbh. They have scooped up tons of experienced big tech devs during the layoffs of the past year, and now they can replace expensive, seasoned devs with the fresh blood
- ein0p 2y ago5% is nothing. Any FANG could lose 30% at least and all metrics would only improve. People working there know this. There's an unbelievable amount of fat in these companies. The main issue is that often during these cuts it's not the fat but the "muscle" that gets cut. The "fat" is good at sticking around.
- surgical_fire 2y agoI worked for one of the FAANGS. My experience (or I might say impression) is that any project could still be on "Keeping the Lights On" mode with a fraction of the engineers there, to an acceptable level. Over time some cracks might show. Bugs that take longer to fix, issues that take longer to figure out, delayed releases, etc. New features being implemented would be severely impacted, especially if those need integration from multiple teams. Does this mean that there's fat? Maybe. Any company I worked for has a level of fat - and that might be a good thing, as demand quite often is not stable over time, you may need to ramp up initiatives without necessarily hiring/training new employees.
- ein0p 2y agoThere's a flaw in your reasoning: you did not consider that a lot of the projects at FANGS are completely unnecessary and exist only because these companies massively over-hire. Ideal working environment is when there are a lot of worthwhile projects and not enough people. That's when you get a choice of what to work on, that's when the company really values the employees, etc. That's how Google was 15+ years ago. That is absolutely not how it is now, at any of these companies. There are way too many people and not enough work. The less ambitious employees deal with this by hiding and doing next to nothing. The more ambitious ones fight each other for scraps of meaningful work that are not yet being done by someone they can't fight. It's not a dignified place to be either way.
- surgical_fire 2y ago> There's a flaw in your reasoning: you did not consider that a lot of the projects at FANGS are completely unnecessary and exist only because these companies massively over-hire. Maybe? Companies of all shapes and size do poor decisions. On the other hand, the nature of some projects require some time of R&D to find out whether something is worthwhile or not. > Ideal working environment is when there are a lot of worthwhile projects and not enough people. That's when you get a choice of what to work on, that's when the company really values the employees, etc. I am not sure I agree with this. Ideally you have resources to pursue all projects considered worthwhile. > That is absolutely not how it is now, at any of these companies. There are way too many people and not enough work. The less ambitious employees deal with this by hiding and doing next to nothing. The more ambitious ones fight each other for scraps of meaningful work that are not yet being done by someone they can't fight. It's not a dignified place to be either way. That was really not my experience there, although I did not work for Google specifically (perhaps reality there was different). There was actually a lot of work to be done, although a plenty of that work was, in my opinion, overhead due to how things were structured and how decisions were made, many times from the top down. I left because of it. I felt like it was the place I worked the hardest and I was at the same time the least productive.
- mtkd 2y agoWhat Meta has been publishing on reasoning recently is very impressive -- I imagine they have internal product that is even further ahead Senior engineers can now get answers in seconds to questions it might have taken a junior a couple days to figure out ... agents are starting to do comparable workflows to low/mid-skilled ops/support teams in some verticals at a fraction of cost If Meta, and others pushing on AI, are not reducing heads in 2025 -- it would kind of undermine the value of the massive investments they are making HN commentariat coupling this to anything else is a bit disingenuous as most engineers I know are talking about this a lot right now as nobody really knows where it leads -- with some discussion about whether it is comparable to horses being replaced by cars in 1920s and employment redeploying elsewhere over time
- dragon-hn 2y ago> If Meta, and others pushing on AI, are not reducing heads in 2025 -- it would kind of undermine the value of the massive investments they are making If we take Zuckerberg at face value, then they aren’t cutting headcount, but instead replacing ‘low performers’ with new blood.
- m348e912 2y agoCan anyone from FB explain the user hostile UI? Reading comments or posts is an exercise in futility. Resizing or moving a page will result in a refresh where you lose your place or can no longer find what you were reading. Is this an accidental side affect of design or do you guys sit in a conference room conjuring up ways to make user experience miserable?
- netsharc 2y agoSome people use FB like phpBB, despite the massive shit of a UI. Maybe it's because reading comments don't earn them ad-revenue? "Quick, annoy the user so they'll move away!". Maybe if they replaced every 5th comment with an ad (like how every 5th or so post/story/reel on Instagram is an ad).
- canttestthis 2y agoGave my notice yesterday, last day of work is Feb 3... 7 days before the layoff.
- paxys 2y agoI'm surprised your manager let you resign. Giving you a low rating and firing you would have helped them meet their quota and gotten you a severance.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- blsapologist42 2y agoWhy wouldn't you wait until the vest?
- laweijfmvo 2y ago(Vest is on 2/15). Honestly, quitting before the vest and your bonus payout is just silly… curious what happened
- philk10 2y agothose who have not increased their neck size in the last year will be first to go
- paxys 2y agoThe noteworthy part here is that low performers won't be put on a PIP (which happens every year at this time). Come February the bottom 5% of the list will be given a severance and shown the door.
- xigency 2y agoWell that's an improvement. I hate when companies gamify their firings.
- paxys 2y agoIf you are a Meta employee and got sizable RSU grants around 2022-23 when the stock price was 1/5 what it is now, you should probably start packing your bags. Whatever your performance is, there's zero chance it can justify those upcoming paychecks.
- laweijfmvo 2y agoMeta makes an incredible amount of money. Laying off employees who are otherwise doing fine just because their compensation is a bit higher than you thought would be stupid and petty.
- danny_codes 2y agoAnd your point is?
- paxys 2y agoSo in the first two weeks of the year Zuck has announced: - Replacing their global policy chief with the company's highest ranking Republican. - Appointing Dana White to the company's board. - Changing content policies to be aligned with the incoming administration. - Elimination of DEI programs in hiring. - Removing tampons from men's restrooms. - Defending all this in a 3 hour Joe Rogan interview. Ranting about the lack of "masculine energy" at the company. - 5% layoff of low performers. Company needs to get "intense". Is this history's most bizarre midlife crisis? What is going on with this man?
- yodsanklai 2y agoI know Zuck wasn't super popular on HN, but until these recent events, I saw him as someone generally reasonable and pragmatic. I can understand that he had to compromise with Trump in order to protect his wealth and company. But it's clearly more than that. I wonder, does he even have values on his owns? will he reinstate the tampons if democrats win in 4 years? My guess is that he's slowing been adhering to the Trump/Musk ideology (like a lot of people) and now is one of them.
- downrightmike 2y agoHe's a weak man that detached from reality and has no anchors to the real world anymore. He's just saying whatever shit he thinks will make him money
- gemerald 2y ago[flagged]
- Perceval 2y agoI think once he started working out and getting strong, he looked less like an android and more like a human male. His politics may have shifted as a result of building muscle: * https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886923003161 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01918... * https://hbr.org/2013/07/mens-arm-strength-affects-thei https://hbr.org/2013/07/mens-arm-strength-affects-thei * https://www.psypost.org/strong-men-come-across-as-more-conservative-study-finds/ https://www.psypost.org/strong-men-come-across-as-more-conse...
- Ancalagon 2y agoCan someone explain why there is so much porn on fb/ig these days?
- siva7 2y agoCould it be this isn't really about low-performing folks but about employees and teams who don't fit his new political agenda?
- qgin 2y agoThis definitely cuts costs, but I’m still unclear what Meta’s long term business plan is. They’re giving away Llama to get open source contributions to help them… do what?
- aprilthird2021 2y agoGiving away llama neutralizes upstarts by taking away a lot of customers who are willing to save money with a cheaper, less useful AI. It also democratizes making AI content to get eyeballs to sell ads. And lastly Llama breakthroughs help ads ML
- rvz 2y agoWell it was already admitted by Zuck, wasn't it? [0] Also Microsoft was the first large domino to announce cutting "underperforming" staff and now Meta is doing the same. [1] Unfortunately, there will be copycats taking notes to use "AI" as an excuse to accelerate more layoffs for AI or cheaper labor. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42687606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42687606 [1] https://archive.ph/NZT1w https://archive.ph/NZT1w
- taimurkazmi 2y ago“intense” in the corporate world means grind our employees to dust.
- Over2Chars 2y agoWhat about the dead wood managers? I'd like to see 5% of engineering managers get cut every year, since they're either selecting for, or I suspect creating, disengaged employees.
- Over2Chars 2y agoIf the manager's neck was on the line for poor candidate hiring and low morale, I suspect they mire hire more carefully and manage more effectively.
- whattheheckheck 2y agoNetflix has the "would we rehire this person?" Every year, but people are smart and game the system. The story of Sun Tzu using the emperor's concubines to demonstrate military discipline is one of the most famous anecdotes from The Art of War. When Sun Tzu was summoned by King Helü of Wu to prove his military theories, the king challenged him to demonstrate his strategies using the palace concubines as soldiers. Sun Tzu divided the concubines into two groups and appointed the king's two favorite concubines as their leaders. He then explained the orders clearly and ensured they were understood. When the exercise began, the concubines laughed and did not follow the orders. Sun Tzu stopped the exercise and said that if instructions are not clear, it is the fault of the commander. He repeated the instructions, ensuring they were understood again. However, when the concubines laughed and failed to obey a second time, Sun Tzu stated that if orders are clear and not followed, it is the fault of the leaders. He then executed the two leaders, despite them being the king's favorites. This shocked the king, but Sun Tzu insisted that discipline was essential in any army. After the execution, the remaining concubines obeyed his commands with perfect discipline, demonstrating the effectiveness of his methods.
- sloroo 2y agoIt'd be nice if the contract was just for a year with extensions, not this at-will BS which doesn't even hold true (the way it's perceived as "having" a job) for some randomly selected people judged by one random manager as "low performers".
- nojvek 2y agoUsually it’s the engineers that go at the bottom. Yet most of the inefficiencies come at management layer having a long chain of command.
- taikocat 2y agoMeta is a great China company but I won't use it anymore.
- magxnta 2y agoOh, he is cutting the „low performers“. I’m glad that he isn’t kicking the guy who wasted BILLIONS on the metaverse though. :)