Read the leaked email Meta sent to the employees it just fired

(by Patricia Battle, The Street) – Meta, which operates social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, raised eyebrows earlier this year when it warned employees in a memo that it plans to make vital cuts to its workforce this year.

In the memo, sent to employees in January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will eliminate about 3,600 jobs, approximately 5% of its workforce, as it doubles down on investing in artificial intelligence, developing its smart glasses, and “the future of social media.”

He said the cuts would be based on performance, stating that the company will have an “intense year.”

“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” said Zuckerberg in the memo. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

Over the past few months, Meta’s layoff plan has dramatically unfolded:

• The first round of Meta’s layoffs kicked off on Feb. 10, impacting almost 4,000 employees in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
• Meta later faced backlash from laid-off employees who claimed they weren’t low performers at the company since they received “At or Above Expectations” ratings in their 2024 mid-year reviews.
• In April, Meta laid off over 100 employees in its Reality Labs division, affecting employees who develop virtual reality, headsets, and other wearable technology.
• In June, Meta reportedly sent a memo to its managers instructing them to give 15% to 20% of employees who are part of large teams “below expectations” performance rating in their mid-year performance reviews, which started on June 16, to help it “make exit decisions.”

Meta recently conducted another round of layoffs right before the holidays, impacting 600 employees in its Meta Superintelligence Labs division, which is responsible for developing AI technology.

The move comes after Meta finalized an almost $15 billion investment in Scale AI in June, leading to Scale CEO Alexandr Wang becoming Meta’s chief AI officer.

Scale AI founder and CEO Alexandr Wang poses for photos at the company’s office in San Francisco, May 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In a memo to employees on the cuts to the Meta Superintelligence Labs [MSL] division, Wang said that having fewer workers in the department will make decision-making easier, according to a recent report from Business Insider.

“By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact,” wrote Wang.

He also said the company is “supporting the majority of those impacted in finding new roles at the company.”

… In the memo to employees, Wang said despite recent layoffs, Meta “will continue to hire industry-leading Al-native talent.”

“Earlier today, we made some changes to MSL to move us toward being the most agile and talent-dense team in the industry. By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact.

It’s never an easy decision to say goodbye to colleagues. These are talented people who have worked extremely hard and contributed to our Al effort. Anyone in North America whose role was impacted has already been notified. Those who may be impacted in EMEA have been notified and remain subject to consultation.

We are supporting the majority of those impacted in finding new roles at the company. We have spun up a tiger team of recruiters to help this group find the right match for their expertise and land in roles through an expedited hiring process.

This by no means signals any decrease in investment. In fact, we will continue to hire industry-leading Al-native talent. Our goal is to enable MSL to move faster. We remain excited about the models we are training, our ambitious compute plans, and the products we are building, and I’m confident in our path to superintelligence.”

Published at Yahoo Finance on Oct 27. (This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Oct 25, 2025.) Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.