Buenos Aires — The 11,000 layoffs announced in November by the CEO and founder of Meta (META), Mark Zuckerberg, were followed this week by a second round, with the news that the technology company would reduce its workforce by 13%, and which will include staff in Argentina.
In Argentina, the first wave of 2022 affected between 18 and 22 employees out of an estimated total of between 160 and 170 people working in the Buenos Aires office at that time, a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as it was a private matter, told Bloomberg Línea.
The same source said that the layoffs of this second wave would not have an impact in Argentina until May, and that those affected would be mainly middle managers.
According to the same person, in November 2022, Argentina’s vice presidents would not have had any influence on the decision of who to lay off in the country, but that this time they would. The company’s Buenos Aires office is reportedly talking about layoffs in Argentina being proportionally lower than last year’s however, although they maintain a “seeing is believing” stance.
Meta’s official response
Consulted by Bloomberg Línea, Meta Argentina and the US-based company limited itself to sending Zuckerberg’s official statement, which does not present a breakdown of the layoffs by region or country.
In the document, in which Zuckerberg again defines 2023 as the “year of efficiency,” the Facebook founder points to a “new reality,” in which “most companies will reduce their long-term vision and investment”.
“But we have the opportunity to be bolder and make decisions that other companies cannot. So we have put together a financial plan that allows us to invest heavily in the future and, at the same time, deliver sustainable results while managing each team more efficiently. The changes we are making will enable us to deliver on this financial plan,” he adds.
Last year’s layoffs
In November 2022, Bloomberg Línea identified four cases of individuals who confirmed their layoffs in Argentina through publications on the social network LinkedIn, and was able to verify one more layoff through a person with direct knowledge of the matter who had not been identified.
The five layoffs covered the marketing, enterprise support Ttch, and global sales areas. However, none of the individuals affected by the cuts agreed to speak with Bloomberg Línea on the record to provide more information about their cases.
Located across the street from Puerto Madero, the Buenos Aires office is one of the most important offices of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, in Latin America. It was inaugurated in May 2014, in an event attended by both the then president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and the mayor of Buenos Aires at the time, Mauricio Macri.
Meta’s personnel cuts also reached Brazil, impacting areas such as product, sales and partnerships, among others, and a post seen by Bloomberg Línea on LinkedIn referred to at least 80 people who were laid off by the technology company in that country.
Isabela Fleischmann contributed to this story