\u2026
People could live physically where they want, while still being able to get the benefits of \u2026 feeling like you\u2019re together with people at work. All the ways that help to build more culture and build better relationships and build trust, which I think are real issues if you\u2019re not seeing people in person.<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Facebook owner Meta begins final round of mass layoffs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n
Meta started carrying out the last batch of a three-part round of layoffs on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter, as part of a plan announced in March to eliminate 10,000 roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Meta earlier this year became the first big tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs, after showing more than 11,000 employees the door in the fall. The cuts brought the company\u2019s headcount down to where it stood as of about mid-2021, following a hiring spree that doubled its workforce since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Several employees working in teams such as marketing, recruiting, engineering and corporate communications took to LinkedIn on Wednesday to announce that they were laid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Meta shares were up 0.5% in a broadly weaker market. They have more than doubled in value this year and are among the top performers in the S&P 500 index, thanks to the cost-cutting drive and Meta\u2019s focus on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta\u2019s chief executive, said in March that the bulk of the layoffs in the company\u2019s second round would take place in three \u201cmoments\u201d over several months, largely finishing in May. Some smaller rounds could continue after that, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Overall the cuts have hit non-engineering roles most heavily, reinforcing the primacy of those who write the code at Meta. Zuckerberg pledged in March to restructure business teams \u201csubstantially\u201d and return to a \u201cmore optimal ratio of engineers to other roles\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Meta Mayhem: Hybrid Work FAIL \u00a6 Yet More Layoffs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n
Welcome to The Long View<\/em>\u2014where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let\u2019s work out what really matters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n This week: Meta\u2019s enforced hybrid work plan is failing badly, and Meta makes more layoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n First up this week: \u201cReturn to the office,\u201d commanded the mighty Zuckerberg. And his minions mostly complied\u2014after all, they might be fired if they didn\u2019t<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Conference rooms are booked solid, so how can teams meet? Even if people are in the same building, their \u201chot\u201d desks are scattered around on different floors. The hilarious upshot is\u2014even though they had to commute to do so\u2014they\u2019re still meeting via video<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Kali Hays: Meta\u2019s mandatory return to office is \u2018a mess\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u201cComing into the office to be on Zoom<\/tt>\u201d<\/strong><\/big> Why indeed? MattGaiser is baffled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n This is the one thing I find baffling about RTO. I know plenty of people who have been dragged into offices where they have no team members. So they are just on Zoom at a desk in the office rather than at home. Steve Mollman reminds us how we got here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u201cThose failing to comply could be fired<\/tt>\u201d<\/strong><\/big> \u201cForward leaning\u201d? \u201cThoughtful and responsible\u201d? iainmerrick spots the irony:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n It also seems a bit strange for the company to have an overarching goal around building a \u201cmetaverse,\u201d but not to try to figure out how they themselves might use those tools for their own work. No appetite for their own dogfood?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Woof. Top dog Mark Zuckerberg explains himself (kinda):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n One of the things that I\u2019m curious about is\u2014there are all these debates right now about remote work, or people being together. I think [VR] gets us a lot closer to being able to work physically in different places, but actually have it feel like we\u2019re together. I think the dream is that people will one day be able to just work wherever they want, but we\u2019ll have all the same opportunities. But jbombadil can\u2019t understand it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n I will never understand this. I prefer working from the office and being around my colleagues. It\u2019s more comfortable than home, and the commute is an added bonus for me. But Meta\u2019s metaverse project ain\u2019t going so well. Like Epic Games last week, Meta looks to be laying off hundreds of staff who are working on this \u201cVR 3.0\u201d effort (or perhaps 4.0\u2014I\u2019ve lost count). We\u2019re told the RIF will be announced later today<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n The layoffs will continue until morale improves. Anyway, people need to go watch the seminal 1992 movie The Lawnmower Man<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Katie Paul: Meta to lay off employees \u2026 on Wednesday<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u201cMeta has slashed around 21,000 jobs<\/tt>\u201d<\/strong><\/big> Drip, drip, drip. rsilvergun points at the pachyderm in the parlor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n So when are they going to lay off Mark Zuckerberg? Because this entire fiasco was his baby. \u2026 If he spent $1M on that it would\u2019ve been a fiasco, let alone $30B. And of course little dictator Zuck in his fiefdom got to order everyone to march to their dooms. Every single person on that project knew it was doomed to failure because it was a product nobody wanted but the boss. So they had to waste months of their lives on nonsense that was never going to go anywhere. Meanwhile, kwertyoowiyop weeps in sociopathy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Telling employees on Tuesday that you may lay them off but they have to wait \u2026 to find out? That is some ice-cold management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n You have been reading The Long View<\/i> by Richi Jennings. You can contact him at @RiCHi, @richij or [email protected] .<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Image: Jonny Gios (via Unsplash; leveled and cropped)<\/p>\n\n\n]]><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sesglobal.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. RTO Ructions Roil Ranks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n
![\"DevOps](\"https:\/\/devops.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1-13.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nAnalysis: But the first month hasn\u2019t gone well<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n
All of the roughly 65,000 workers \u2026 are required to be in an office at least three days a week. Attendance is tracked daily. [But] they\u2019ve been met with a lack of space and privacy, along with productivity challenges.
\u2026
One consistent problem is a lack of conference rooms to have team meetings, according to three employees. \u2026 It\u2019s a challenge to get a conference room at all \u2026 much less one large enough for an entire team to meet.
\u2026
\u201cHot desks,\u201d as they\u2019re known, are unassigned desks that need to be booked in advance. \u2026 \u201cIt seems impossible to get one desk for a long enough period,\u201d one employee said.
\u2026
One employee noted their team is mostly in other offices, [which] means their mandatory in-office work is the same as working from home\u2014except with a commute. \u2026 \u201cPeople are just coming into the office to be on Zoom,\u201d the employee said. \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u2026
I did it for the last few days of my prior job: Was dragged into the office when all my co-workers were at least 3.5 hours away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Meta \u2026 championed remote work just a few years ago. \u2026 In 2020, the social media giant said it would start a significant shift to remote work on a permanent basis. CEO Mark Zuckerberg boasted at the time, \u201cWe are going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale, with a thoughtful and responsible plan for how to do this.\u201d He estimated that about half of the company\u2019s employees would be working remotely within the next five to 10 years.
\u2026
But as of Sept. 5 this year, all employees, except those with management-approved exemptions, must be back in the office three days a week. \u2026 Those failing to comply could be fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u2026
People could live physically where they want, while still being able to get the benefits of \u2026 feeling like you\u2019re together with people at work. All the ways that help to build more culture and build better relationships and build trust, which I think are real issues if you\u2019re not seeing people in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u2026
That being said, I would never force<\/i> my colleagues to go back to the office. \u2026 It\u2019s cheaper for the company (no providing food for everyone, the office doesn\u2019t have to accommodate everyone, etc.) and better for all employees, who can do exactly whatever they want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n2. Yet More Meta Layoffs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n
Analysis: Enough with the dorky headsets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n
Meta is planning to lay off employees on Wednesday in the unit of its metaverse-oriented Reality Labs division focused on creating custom silicon, two sources familiar with the matter told [me]. \u2026 Employees were informed of the layoffs in a post on Meta\u2019s internal discussion forum [that] said they would be notified about their status with the company by early Wednesday morning.
\u2026
If the cuts are deep, they could hamper \u2026 Zuckerberg\u2019s project to build \u2026 the \u201cmetaverse,\u201d [which] he has predicted \u201cwill redefine our relationship with technology.\u201d \u2026 Meta has slashed around 21,000 jobs since November of last year as it has sought to reassure investors that it was reining in costs amid waning revenue growth, high inflation and concerns that Reality Labs was losing too much money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u2026
It\u2019s funny how CEOs make decisions that absolutely wreck the value of a company and they are a-okay. For some reason \u2026 it\u2019s always us it takes it in the shorts. [But] we always get right back up again and say, \u201cPlease sir can I have another?\u201d Are we ever going to learn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nThe Moral of the Story:
Be where you are\u2014otherwise you will miss your life<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n