Meta recently terminated a contract with custodial staff at Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters, resulting in hundreds of job cuts in the coming weeks.
In mid-June, the company notified facilities management provider ABM Industries of its intent to terminate the contract effective July 25.
An ABM human resources manager wrote a July 1 letter to the department explaining that the decision will affect 368 ABM employees at 1 Hacker Way in Menlo Park, California, including kitchen cleaners, night cleaners, recycling sorters, cafe support as well as ten supervisors and seven managers.
“While the subsequent custodial vendor Meta has hired to perform these services may retain some or all of the ABM employees at this account, ABM has no independent knowledge of that vendor’s hiring plans,” the letter wrote.
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The decision to lay off employees comes as Facebook’s online advertising business has slowed due to several factors, including rising inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and privacy changes from Facebook caused by Apple’s iOS.
Last May, Meta said it was slowing the pace of hiring after forecasting a possible year-over-year sales decline in the second quarter. However, the letter did not contain any grounds for termination.
A Facebook representative said the company plans to replace the provider with another company but did not say how many employees would be part of the deal.
ABM is a publicly-traded company that employs over 100,000 people. During its December conference call, the company listed Facebook, Google and Adobe among its customers. They also said that the companies mentioned were among those that expanded their presence in the office.
Inside Facebook facilities
Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, things have gotten much quieter on Facebook’s facilities. However, while the company planned to return to the office, employees had the option to work remotely permanently.
In May 2021, the company reopened its Bay Area offices to some employees.
Last week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would cut plans to hire engineers by 30% this year. Additionally, reports began circulating on Monday that Meta’s head of engineering had urged employees to identify and report “underperformers” because they were slowing the company’s performance.
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