Mark Zuckerberg unhappy with Meta's organizational structure; more layoffs possible
Last year, Meta laid off over 11,000 employees or 13% of its workforce. It seems that the company is not done axing staffers. Per The Verge's Command Line newsletter, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is unhappy with the current organizational structure of the company, where there are multiple layers of management in a team. The report suggests that Zuckerberg has another round of layoffs in mind.
Why does this story matter?
The post-pandemic tech meltdown is forcing companies to rethink their organizational structure. Companies with multiple levels of middle management are now questioning the need for that. After a challenging 2022, tech companies like Meta are looking at ways to minimize the wastage of resources. Zuckerberg has identified the company's large teams with several managers as a viable target.
Meta plans to 'flatten' its organizational structure
It was Meta's chief product officer Chris Cox who first talked about flattening the company's organizational structure in an internal workplace post earlier this month. Zuckerberg emphasized this point during an internal employee Q&A last week. He went into more detail about what Cox said, saying managers should not be rewarded for creating large teams.
Zuckerberg is unhappy with the number of managers in teams
Zuckerberg told his employees that Meta has more managers than required in a single team at the moment. He said, "I don't think you want a management structure that's just managers managing managers, managing managers, managing managers, managing the people who are doing the work." Zuckerberg's words imply that more layoffs are coming.
Meta is working on AI tools to help with coding
Zuckerberg's Q&A with employees wasn't limited to the topic of middle management. Per the newsletter, he said that the company is working on ChatGPT-like AI tools to improve the efficacy of employees. The tools will be trained on Meta's internal codebase to help engineers with basic coding. He added that such tools will also help non-engineers in the future.
Meta faced challenges on different fronts in 2022
Meta announced its decision to fire over 11,000 employees in November last year. The company had a tough 2022 owing to a decline in ad revenue, tough competition from TikTok, and macroeconomic headwinds that affected tech stocks all over the world. Zuckerberg took accountability for the decision. He said that the firm overhired during the pandemic amid predictions of an online boom.
