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Every Time Mark Zuckerberg’s All-Hands Meetings Preceded Meta Layoffs

Published
Kurt Robson
Published
By Kurt Robson
Edited by Samantha Dunn
Key Takeaways
  • Meta’s all-hands meetings, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have preceded mass layoffs over the last few years.
  • On Jan. 30, Zuckerberg told employees that 2025 would feel a “little more like a sprint.”
  • Meta announced it would cut 5% of its global workforce in February.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has again started the year with a nerve-wracking all-hands meeting, telling his employees to “buckle up” for an “intense year.”

The move comes after Meta announced it would lay off 5% of its global workforce in February, focusing on its poorest-performing employees.

However, over the past few years, Zuckerberg’s all-hands have usually preceded announcements of layoffs—leading to concerns that more cuts could occur throughout the year.

Meta’s 2025 All-Hands Meeting

In Zuckerberg’s all-hands meeting, reviewed by Business Insider , the CEO told employees AI would be at the forefront of everything Meta did this year.

Employees were told that this year would be about urgency.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Zuckerberg said. “But honestly, this year feels a little more like a sprint to me.”

The CEO also predicted this would be the first year Meta would see AI agents working in the company.

Zuckerberg said it was “hard to know” if this would lead to job cuts in the company but claimed it might lead to more hiring of AI-based engineers to harness the technology effectively.

“The nature of what engineering is in the future will be different than it is today,” the CEO said.

Over the past few years, Zuckerberg’s all-hands meetings have preceded sweeping job cuts in the company.

This year, Meta already announced that it would be cutting around 5% of its global workforce. However, the focus on AI and talk of AI agents will likely raise concerns about more layoffs throughout the year.

Here are the other times Zuckerberg’s all-hands meetings preceded mass layoffs in the world’s leading tech company.

2022: A Shift to Metaverse

In early 2022, in Meta’s all-hands meeting, Zuckerberg claimed  Meta was now “a metaverse company, building the future of social connection.”

This was at the peak of Meta’s push for the metaverse, before the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, during the brief period when building virtual worlds was more exciting than AI.

The all-hands meeting was held shortly after Meta’s name change from Facebook, and investors were spooked by the company’s hard shift away from social media.

Employees were also nervous about the switch, with company engineers reportedly being urged  to apply for internal openings in Meta’s virtual reality unit.

The employees may have been right to be worried, as Meta went on to make its first major workforce reduction in November, laying off 11,000 employees.

“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” Zuckerberg said in a news release. 

“I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go,” he added.

2023: The Year of Efficiency

In February 2023, Zuckerberg said Meta’s management theme for the following 12 months would be the “Year of Efficiency”  to become a “stronger and more nimble organization.”

The comments came after Meta’s share price fell 64% in 2022, and sales declined 4% in the fourth quarter, marking its third consecutive decline.

In an earnings call, Zuckerberg said: “The first 18 years I think we grew it 20%, 30% compound or a lot more every year.

“And then obviously that changed very dramatically in 2022, where our revenue was negative for growth, for the first time in the company’s history,” he added.

Zuckerberg said Meta would work on being more “proactive on cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be crucial” and that it would emphasize “removing layers of middle management to make decisions faster.”

Again, this preceded more layoffs—this time, with an additional 10,000 employees cut in April 2023. At the time, Zuckerberg cited climbing U.S. interest rates and increased regulation for the cuts.

An AI Future for Meta?

As AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous throughout almost every industry, Meta will likely continue to hone its focus on the world’s hottest technology.

How this will continue to impact Meta’s workforce remains unclear, but Zuckerberg’s comments on the upcoming adoption of AI employees make it clear that some more change is afoot.

Zuckerberg said last week that the tech giant plans to invest up to $65 billion  to expand its AI infrastructure this year, in a bid to compete with Google and OpenAI.

“This will be a defining year for AI,” Zuckerberg said in the Facebook post. “This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business.”

In terms of workforce, Zuckerberg said the company would ramp up hiring for AI roles.

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Kurt Robson

Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN with a diverse background across several prominent news outlets. Having transitioned into the world of technology journalism several years ago, Kurt has developed a keen fascination with all things AI. Kurt’s reporting blends a passion for innovation with a commitment to delivering insightful, accurate and engaging stories on the cutting edge of technology.
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