Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly giving many of Meta’s middle managers an ultimatum: Give up managing other employees and find something else productive to do — or leave.
The managerial culling – referred to internally as “flattening” – is unfolding just days after Zuckerberg declared a companywide “year of efficiency” in 2023 and hinted that more spending cuts were on the way.
Meta managers and directors targeted in the initiative will be told to transition to an “individual contributor” role at the company – such as coding, design or research – or exit altogether, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The managers will no longer be responsible for overseeing other employees.
Executives are expected to break the news to impacted employees in the coming weeks, the outlet’s sources added. Any job cuts are expected to be gradual and conducted on a case-by-case basis separate from the annual review process.
The outlet said some Meta employees have expressed support for changes to the company’s leadership structure – which Zuckerberg and others have said had become too bloated and inefficient.
Meta is looking to slash middle management as part of an ongoing cost-cutting initiative that included a sweeping round of layoffs last November. Zuckerberg blamed overly aggressive hiring practices and worsening economic conditions as Meta slashed more than 11,000 jobs, or about 13% of its overall workforce.
The cuts have drawn a positive response from investors and fueled a 53% rally in Meta shares since the start of the year.
It’s unclear how many middle managers will ultimately be asked to shift to individual roles.
The Post has reached out to Meta for further comment.
Zuckerberg directly addressed his plans to cull the ranks of middle management during the company’s second-quarter earnings call last week.
“We’re working on flattening our org structure and removing some layers of middle management to make decisions faster, as well as deploying AI tools to help our engineers to be more productive,” Zuckerberg said.
“As part of this, we’re going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial, but my main focus is on increasing the efficiency of how we execute our top priorities,” he added.
Meta faced some criticism over its sweeping layoffs last fall, which took place after the company poured billions of dollars into a metaverse initiative that has failed to generate much public interest.
As The Post reported at the time, some fired workers were furious at Meta for informing them about the layoffs by email. One employee said she was laid off despite being eight months pregnant.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
