Meta is reducing headcount and restructuring to accelerate its AI strategy after the Metaverse failed to gain traction. Around 8,000 employees are scheduled to be informed they no longer have jobs, and about 6,000 open roles will be eliminated. Additional staff will be reassigned into AI-focused positions, including engineering teams using AI-native design structures and a Central Analytics group focused on measuring productivity. Meta plans to make the organization more productive and the work more rewarding. Some employees have protested the use of mouse-tracking software for AI training, and others are concerned about mandatory role changes and the impact on their work and privacy.
"On Wednesday, around 8,000 employees will be informed at 4 a.m. local time that they no longer have jobs. An additional 6,000 open roles will be axed as well. In a memo obtained by Reuters, chief people officer Janelle Gale wrote that "we know days like this are extremely hard, and we appreciate you showing up for each other." But not showing up physically, that is. For Decimation Day - close to one in ten will be laid off - Meta asked everyone to work from home."
"Another 7,000 staffers are being reassigned, after Gale informed them in the memo that they would be "drafted" into AI-focused roles. Those employees will be put on engineering teams that use "AI native design structures" as well as in a department called Central Analytics, which is Meta's wing for measuring productivity. Gale wrote that the restructuring "will make us more productive and make the work more rewarding.""
"That remains to be seen for those in Central Analytics: More than 1,000 employees have already signed a petition condemning Meta's decision to use mouse-tracking software on its staffers to train its AI. Meta employees say that the mandatory role change"
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