In leaked memo, Facebook tells managers low performers don’t belong

Facebook is instructing its engineering managers to identify and weed out their lowest-performing employees as the company seeks to rein in costs amid an economic downturn in the long-booming tech industry.

Facebook head of engineering Maher Saba sent a memo on Friday to managers urging them to identify anyone who “needs support” and report them in an internal humanresources system by 5 p.m. Pacific time on Monday.

“If a direct report is coasting or is a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company,” Saba wrote. “As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta.”

Facebook renamed itself Meta last year.

The memo, which was first reported by The Information, is one of several messages from Facebook executives warning about the need to cut costs as the social-media giant seeks to shore up its stagnating digital-advertising business and reinvent itself as a maker of virtual reality devices. Its arrival shocked many employees, who are concerned about potential layoffs, reduced bonuses and fewer promotions.

“The reaction from folks that have seen this is that this will be used to create a bunch [of] ‘performance improvement plans’ that will result in mass layoffs,” said a person who was familiar with the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive conversations.

The company’s stock price has fallen nearly

52% since the beginning of the year as it faces threats to its social-media business.

Meta did not immediately reply to a request for comments.