Meta Planning Lower Bonus Payouts for Some Employees: Report

Facebook owner Meta Platforms is planning to lower bonus pays for some employees, and assess staff performance more frequently, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing an internal memo.

Employees of the social media giant, who get a rating of "met most expectations" in their 2023 year-end reviews, will receive a smaller percentage of bonus and restricted stock award due in March 2024, the WSJ report said.

The bonus multiplier for that grade has been cut to 65 percent from 85 percent earlier, WSJ said, adding that the company will also restart assessing staff performance twice a year.

"We are 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 Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters, without giving any further details.

On March 14, the company announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs this year in a second round of layoffs, as part of restructuring that will see it scrap hiring plans for 5,000 openings, kill off lower-priority projects and "flatten" layers of middle management, as the industry braces for a deep economic downturn.

As per a recent report by Reuters, a veteran Meta advertising product executive will leave the company in May, amid a months-long pruning of projects and staff that Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has dubbed the "year of efficiency."

Dan Levy, currently the social media giant's vice president of business messaging, said in a post to Meta's internal social network on Monday that he wanted to focus on family after losing a child to leukemia. "I made this decision slowly (over the last 2+ years) and then all of a sudden," he wrote.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed Levy's departure and said business messaging would remain a strategic priority and area of investment for the company this year. Levy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Levy has been at Meta for 14 years. The business messaging project he heads has been flagged by Zuckerberg for growth potential, although he was replaced last year as overall head of ad and business products.

© Thomson Reuters 2023