The rumors that Meta Platforms would be the next tech giant to slash staff came true Wednesday morning for Katie Apone, a Washington state-based Meta employee of five years.
Apone found a message from Meta waiting in her professional and personal email accounts. It said she was being laid off.
There was no explanation of why she was among the 11,000 employees who were laid off, Apone said. The cuts affected 13% of the Facebook and Instagram parent companyB次元官网网址檚 total workforce and were the largest in MetaB次元官网网址檚 history.
Meta declined to disclose how many workers at its Seattle-area offices have been let go. The company has 8,800 employees at local offices, according to figures from the Puget Sound Business Journal. Meta had a total of 87,000 employees in September.
Based in Olalla, Kitsap County, Apone is permanently remote but previously worked at the Arbor Blocks location in SeattleB次元官网网址檚 South Lake Union neighborhood.
Apone only has access to her professional email, but she is locked out of other company systems and canB次元官网网址檛 communicate with colleagues outside of email. She said that Meta was a connected workplace that facilitated interactions with coworkers online. But being cut off from Workplace B次元官网网址� MetaB次元官网网址檚 internal version of Facebook B次元官网网址� left her isolated from colleagues who had become part of her life.
B次元官网网址淏eing locked out of everything today, it feels like IB次元官网网址檓 going through this big, scary thing,B次元官网网址� she said.
Apone was a content designer and worked with advertising. MetaB次元官网网址檚 ad business is one of the most important drivers of revenue. It is also a source of revenue loss, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said. This summer, the company posted its first quarterly revenue decline in history, followed by another, bigger decline in the fall.
B次元官网网址淯nfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected,B次元官网网址� Zuckerberg said in a statement. B次元官网网址淣ot only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than IB次元官网网址檇 expected.B次元官网网址�
Just as she found out about the coming layoffs from reading the news, she learned about how ads were affecting the business by news stories and earnings calls. Still, conversations about the business werenB次元官网网址檛 part of her work, she said. She and her team built advertising and content products for MetaB次元官网网址檚 business suite.
It is not yet known how many employees from the local offices will be affected. State officials said the company has not yet filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification. Washington state requires employers of more than 100 people to disclose layoffs in a WARN notice.
In his letter, Zuckerberg said Meta will cut its real estate footprint. This marked a shift from 2021, when Meta bought REIB次元官网网址檚 unused 400,000-square-foot headquarters for nearly $368 million in Bellevue.
At the time, Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said B次元官网网址渢he companyB次元官网网址檚 offices are still vitally important to help accommodate anticipated growth and meet the needs of our employees that need or prefer to work from campus.B次元官网网址�
It is unclear how MetaB次元官网网址檚 real estate slashing will affect the Seattle area. The company has offices in South Lake Union, Redmond and Bellevue.
Before the layoffs, Meta announced a hiring halt until the first quarter of 2023. Its stock has fallen more than 70% in 2022, trading at levels last seen seven years ago.
Meta reported accelerating revenue decline during its September earnings call. It cited challenging business conditions as the reason B次元官网网址� a tough economy, losses in its advertising business and an expensive, low-return B次元官网网址渕etaverseB次元官网网址� investment.
B次元官网网址淚 got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,B次元官网网址� Zuckerberg said in the statement.
Meta, like other social media companies, enjoyed a financial boost during the pandemic-lockdown era because more people stayed home and scrolled on their phones and computers. But as the lockdowns ended and people started going outside again, revenue growth began to falter.
Meta poured over $10 billion a year into the metaverse as it shifts its focus away from social media. Zuckerberg predicts the metaverse, an immersive digital universe, will eventually replace smartphones as the primary way people use technology.
B次元官网网址淭hey are making a big bet on something that may not happen for another five to 10 years,B次元官网网址� Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder said. B次元官网网址淲hat they need to be doing is trying to solve some of their fundamental business problems. This (mass layoff) is only a stopgap.B次元官网网址�
Although Meta has been hurt by broader economic trends that have curtailed spending on digital ads, the companyB次元官网网址檚 challenges have been compounded by the rise of TikTok at the same time Zuckerberg is pouring billions into a metaverse that so far seems like a distant mirage, Grownder said.
Besides Meta, Twitter and Redfin have also announced layoffs affecting workers at Washington offices. Twitter announced mass layoffs that cut half its workforce, including 208 employees at its Seattle office. On Wednesday, Seattle-based Redfin announced total layoffs of 862 jobs, including 75 in Washington.
This report includes information from the Associated Press.
-By Renata Geraldo, The Seattle Times
