Meta to cut employee bonus payouts in fresh cost-cutting move

SAN FRANISCO: After laying off 21,000 employees in two job cut rounds, Meta (formerly Facebook) is further looking to cut costs, and has reportedly plans lower bonus payouts for some workers in its 'Year of Efficiency'.

Employees who get a "met most expectations" rating in performance review will get a smaller percentage of their bonus and restricted stock award which are due in March 2024, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Thousands of workers have received the affected pay grade in a recent review round.

The rating, which is the second lowest of the five available for Meta workers, will reportedly earn employees 65 per cent of their eligible bonus, reduced from 85 per cent.

"We understand that while this is a significant change that might disappoint some people, it aligns with our continued focus on maintaining a high-performance culture," according to an internal memo sent to managers this week.

"We're making changes to our performance process taking into account learnings and feedback over the last year while optimising for the future. These changes are not related to workforce restructuring," a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Performance bonuses and restricted stock awards are a significant chunk of tech workers' total compensation packages.

Earlier this month, Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced to sack an additional 10,000 employees via several job cut rounds in the coming months.

Zuckerberg said that overall, "we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven't yet hired".

In a separate filing with the US SEC, Meta said the new job cuts will lower the high end of its expense guidance for the year by $3 billion.

The fresh cuts came just four months after he laid off 11,000 employees, or 13 per cent of the company, in November last year.

Zuckerberg said that after restructuring, Meta plans to lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group.