Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly visibly annoyed with an employee who asked about vacation days during a recent meeting that focused on the Masters of the Universe tightening their belts in the face of tough business conditions.
The New York Post reports that Facebook (now known as Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg became visibly annoyed with an employee who asked about vacation days during a meeting in which the CEO announced plans to lay off underperforming workers. During a companywide Q&A on June 30, Zuckerberg warned employees that a market slump “might be one of the worst downturns that we’ve seen in recent history” as he justified cost-cutting measures.
One source said that during the virtual Q&A, Zuckerberg “appeared visibly frustrated” after one Chicago-based employee asked whether “Meta Days” or extra time off introduced during coronavirus lockdowns would continue in 2023. Zuckerberg responded “Um… all right,” and added: “Given my tone in the rest of the Q&A, you can probably imagine what my reaction to this is.”
Zuckerberg later stated that standards for employees would be higher across the company, and those unable to meet new performance thresholds will be cut. “Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” Zuckerberg said.
“Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,” Zuckerberg added. Zuckerberg revealed that the company would be slowing its hiring plans for engineers by at least 30 percent for the year, adding around 6,000 to 7,000 workers rather than the initially projected 10,000.
Some employees did not react too well to the meeting, with one asking on an internal messaging platform: “Did Mark just say there are a bunch of people at this company that don’t belong here[?]” Another employee quipped: “Who hired them?”
Others seemed to appreciate Zuckerberg’s harsh tone, stating: “This is war-time, we need a war-time CEO.”
Read more at the New York Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan