Have Faith In Mark Zuckerberg's Leadership? 70% Facebook Employees Say No

An employee survey conducted by Meta has discovered that only 26 per cent of the staff members have faith in CEO Mark Zuckerberg's leadership, as per a report in the Washington Post. The internal survey marked a drop of five per cent from October last year. 

According to the outlet, only 43 per cent of employees felt appreciated, down from 58 per cent in October. Employee morale at the tech giant has plummeted after months of turmoil, including several rounds of layoffs resulting in more than 21,000 cuts, budget reduction and strategy changes as part of Mr Zuckerberg's plans for a "year of efficiency". To improve its financial performance and achieve long-term goals, the company is cancelling lower-priority projects and slowing hiring. As per Reuters, Meta has struggled with a "post-pandemic slump" in advertising spending from companies facing high inflation and rising interest rates.

On Thursday, Meta's Chief addressed a companywide meeting where he discussed the company's planned product roadmap. He along with other executives also spoke about the company's artificial intelligence developments, including a suite of new tools that workers can begin experimenting with right away, as per the Washington Post. 

Mr Zuckerberg said in the meeting, "We're going to play an important and unique role in the industry in bringing these capabilities to billions of people in new ways that other people aren't going to do," as per a copy of his remarks shared with the outlet.

A few weeks ago, the CEO also expressed his wish for future stability and less bureaucracy for the company to get a "scrappier place". "Going through restructuring and layoffs and changes like this is obviously a very difficult thing. So it's not like we're going to end up in exactly the place that we were before because that wasn't my goal. I wanted to get to a scrappier place," he said as per a call recording accessed by the Washington Post.

Although the tech giant does not have any other new layoffs planned, Mr Zuckerberg added that "the world is also volatile." It is to be noted that the company intends to expand more slowly going forward, which might result in fewer layoffs when Meta decides to abandon a project in favour of a fresh one. He stated that he believes that with fewer employees, Meta would be able to streamline operations and cut down on bureaucracy.