A Meta employee asked Mark Zuckerberg how staff could trust his leadership decisions after layoffs during a tense town hall

• Mark Zuckerberg was asked how staff will be able to trust his leadership decisions during a town hall.
• The Meta CEO said it was a "fair question" and he is doing his best to be transparent with staff.
• It was Zuckerberg's first opportunity to answer questions after announcing another round of cuts.

A Meta employee asked Mark Zuckerberg how staff could trust his leadership decisions after two rounds of layoffs in a tense town hall on Thursday.

The Meta CEO addressed employees over a video call, a recording of which was obtained by Insider.

It was Zuckerberg's first opportunity to respond to staff concerns after he announced the company's plans to lay off about 10,000 employees earlier this week. The news came after Meta cut about 13% of its workforce last November and Zuckerberg had warned 2023 would be the "year of efficiency."

During an anonymous Q&A portion of the meeting, Zuckerberg responded to concerns about how employees could "trust leadership decisions after two rounds of layoffs."

"I would guess that the way that you will evaluate whether you trust me and whether you want to work at this company is whether we're succeeding and making progress towards the overall state of goals," Zuckerberg said. "Whether you think you basically get good context for me on what we're trying to do and that I'm being honest and giving you my best expectation that that I can of things."

The billionaire also addressed another question from a Meta staffer that asked how his perspective had shifted from November. At the time, Zuckerberg had said the initial layoffs would "minimize the chance of having to do broad layoffs like this for the foreseeable future," The Washington Post previously reported.

"I think it's a completely fair question," Zuckerberg said. "I do think that you want to give people space to evolve their opinions on things and we're in a volatile environment," he added.

"My guess is that we're we're not the only company that's going through multiple rounds of restructuring or things like that. I'm sure there are going to be a lot more as well over the long term," Zuckerberg said.

During the meeting, Zuckerberg said he understood staff were "stressed" about the layoffs, but the company was working as best it could to keep employees apprised of Meta's restructuring process as it occurs. The CEO said Meta had chosen to take a less traditional route when it came to job cuts, which will happen over a series of months.

Zuckerberg told staff the reorganization will focus on identifying the most important projects at the company, cutting back on lower priority projects, and eliminating extra layers of management.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.

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