Meta staff in Dubai office among those impacted by layoffs, exec confirms

These mass layoffs are the first in the company's 18-year history

By Web Desk

Published: Fri 11 Nov 2022, 3:25 PM

Last updated: Fri 11 Nov 2022, 3:39 PM

Last Wednesday, Meta Platforms announced that it would let go of more than 11,000 employees globally. Fares Akkad, regional director for Meta in Mena, has said in a post on LinkedIn that the regional team — based in the company's Dubai office —was impacted, too.

"Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my professional career. We had to let go of 11K people globally and unfortunately the Mena team was impacted as well," he said.

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These mass layoffs are the first in the company's 18-year history, a Reuters report said.

Explaining the isolated incident, Akkad added, "These departures are purely due to needed restructures to face some of the challenging macro economic conditions."

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Recently, after Elon Musk took over Twitter, the micro-blogging platform also laid of thousands of employees globally, citing similar reasons.

Meta laid off around 13 per cent of its workforce as it doubled down on its metaverse bit amid a crumbling advertising market and decades-high inflation, the same Reuters report said.

Meta, once worth more than $1 trillion, is now valued at $256 billion after losing more than 70 per cent of its value this year alone, Reuters says.

Despite the layoffs, humanity did prevail, the Regional Director offered to help those laid off, in the same post.

"The team members that are leaving us are some of the most talented, capable and kind people that I have had the pleasure to work with. They would be an incredible asset to any organization. If you have any openings please share them with me and I am happy to personally refer any of these great people."

A Reuters report said that the company will pay 16 weeks of base pay and two additional weeks for every year of service, as well as all remaining paid time off to employees that have been laid off. They will also receive shares that were set to vest on November 15 and healthcare coverage for six months.