Zuckerberg grilled at staff meeting after Meta layoff announcement

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by staff at an all-hands meeting on Thursday, following the Facebook parent company’s announcement that it would lay off another 10,000 workers.

Staff reportedly asked Zuckerberg how they can be expected to trust the company’s leadership after the surprise second round of layoffs, according to The Washington Post.

“I would guess that the way people would evaluate whether you trust me and want to work at this company in whether we are succeeding in making progress toward the overall stated goals,” Zuckerberg said per the Post, while also acknowledging that “it’s a fair question.”

Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that Meta would be cutting 10,000 jobs and closing 5,000 open positions, citing a “difficult economic environment” amid high interest rates and geopolitical instability.

“At this point, I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years,” Zuckerberg said. “Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation.”

The additional round of layoffs comes after the Meta CEO previously told employees in November that the massive cuts were done in an effort to “minimize the chance of having to do broad layoffs like this for the foreseeable future,” the Post reported.