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Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

cnbc.com

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Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#201
post #65

It 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 i…

I'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.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#202

Gave my notice yesterday, last day of work is Feb 3... 7 days before the layoff.

I'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.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone 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.

In terms of a cultural moment it feels like the 80s. Millions of his voters weren’t ideological conservatives but didn’t fully disagree and like the strength Reagan projected after the turmoil of the mid 60s through the 70s. They abandoned the movement during bush senior and the Clinton years.

The 80s were a reaction to the "liberal" 70s. It's just the natural cycle of history, the majority of people are in the center so when culture shifts too far to one side they start pushing it back.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom of speech is a liberal concept, the application of “liberal” as a derogatory term for one side of the political spectrum was a propaganda move. Don’t give in to it. The current pivot, I think, is mostly that culture warriors have managed to describe their interest in liberal terms (freedom of speech), and social media companies are buying it (gets them out of moderation duty and lets them reduce headcount). T…

Actual liberals aren't really a prominent political force at this point. The culture war is between conservatives and progressives , and, contrary to popular opinion, the latter is not synonymous with liberalism - indeed, on some issues (freedom of speech being a prominent one) they are in opposition.

I think most people in the US are, on some practical level, actual liberals. We can’t see it in the way a fish doesn’t see water. But I think mostly people think of themselves as accepting of others (while not wanting their own freedom of association impinged on). I think a lot of political disagreement shows up where liberal principles collide, like two people’s freedom of expression bumping into each other. Then it becomes a wrestling match for each side to get their position seen as the liberal one.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#206
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being stuck carrying coworkers that don't perform sucks. Firing under-performers is what healthy businesses do.

Firing an arbitrary percentage as opposed to grading to a standard is not.

You're absolutely right. However, 5% is so low that it's hard to believe that there isn't at least that many underperoformers.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#209
post #97

I 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.

The 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.

I 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.

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