Meta (META) , which owns popular social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, has been embroiled in major controversy over the past few weeks.
Last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo to employees warning them that the company is planning to cut roughly 3,600 jobs, which is about 5% of the company’s workforce.
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Zuckerberg said that the job cuts would be based on performance, and the company will be hiring new employees this year to replace those who are laid off.
Related: Meta’s recent layoffs take an unexpected turn
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” said Zuckerberg in the memo.
However, this effort took an unexpected turn once the company’s layoffs kicked off on Feb. 10.
According to a recent report from Business Insider, some employees who were let go claimed that they were “blindsided” by being laid off since they had recently received positive performance reviews.
Before the layoffs began, Insider revealed that Meta sent an internal memo to managers instructing them to lay off higher-performing employees if they couldn’t meet reduction targets by only cutting low performers.
Meta makes a controversial move
Amid the recent controversy over layoffs, Meta has decided to increase bonuses for its executives (excluding the CEO) by between 75% to 200% of their base salary.
According to a recent 8-K Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Meta revealed that its “Bonus Plan” for executives “provides variable cash incentives” annually, “which are designed to motivate its executive officers to focus on company priorities and to reward them for company results and achievements.”
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the richest people in the world, and his wealth largely comes from his stake in Meta Platforms.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Meta said that it decided to increase its executives’ bonuses after finding that their target total cash compensation “was at or below the 15th percentile of executives holding similar positions.”
While Meta’s executives are getting a boost in bonus pay, some of the company’s employees are seeing a decrease in stock rewards, which make up a significant part of their compensation.
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According to a new report from Insider, Meta recently shrunk the value of stock grants awarded to employees by roughly 10%, meaning that some employees would receive about 10% less in stock refreshers each financial quarter this year that vest after four years.
Meta did not immediately respond to TheStreet’s request for comment.
The move from Meta comes as the tech industry is rapidly shrinking its workforce. Microsoft, Intel, Workday, and Amazon are some of the many large companies that announced layoffs this year.
So far in 2025, 59 tech companies have announced job cuts, resulting in 13,802 employees being laid off, according to recent data from Layoffs.fyi.
Meta recently switched gears on major company policies
Layoffs aren’t the only major change that recently occurred within Meta’s workplace.
Meta also raised eyebrows last month when it decided to cut its diversity, equity, and inclusion program shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order dismantling the federal government’s DEI initiatives.
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In a memo sent to employees in January announcing the change, Meta said that it will no longer use its Diverse Slate Approach in its hiring process and will discontinue its supplier diversity efforts.
The company also said that it will replace its equity and inclusion training programs with ones “that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all.”
“The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing,” said Meta in the memo. “The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI. It reaffirms longstanding principles that discrimination should not be tolerated or promoted on the basis of inherent characteristics.”
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