Mark Zuckerberg 'frustrated' with staff over queries about Meta's vacation options: Report

Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg failed to hide his discomfort and appeared "visibly frustrated" after a worker questioned him about vacation days, that the employees at the firm could avail themselves of since the onset of the pandemic. According to a report by The Verge, the incident took place during a June 30 meeting on Zuckerberg's potential plans to lay off underperforming workers.

During the companywide Q&A, Zuckerberg was taking pre-recorded questions but when 38-year-old Gary asked him to suggest vacation options and if the 'Meta Days' i.e. the extra time off introduced during COVID, would continue into 2023. The question came after Meta's boss discussed the impact of the global economy on the financial market, saying that it "might be one of the worst downturns that we have seen in recent history." It is then that the employee, identified as Gary, asked a question that instantly irritated Zuckerberg.

"Um... All right! Given my tone in the rest of the Q&A, you can probably imagine what my reaction to this is," Zuckerberg said, as reported by The Verge.

The 38-year-old also informed that the 'Meta Days' will be discontinued by the end of 2022. Meta introduced the Meta Days by the end of 2020 and later expanded to 2021 and this year. Addressing the session, the tech giant also added that Meta will be increasing its standard of work performance, firing those unable to meet the new threshold. "Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn’t for you, and that self-selection is OK with me,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg explains why Meta enacted hire freezing

Noting the global economy, Zuckerberg elaborated on why Meta undertook a hiring freeze following its rebranding. The Facebook head explained, that the most effective measure of being "cost-conscious" was to reduce new low-priority hiring by at least 30%. He expounded that the company will axe new engineer employment by 3,000 i.e. from a projected 10,000 to 6,000-7,000. He also issued a forewarning, saying those unable to keep up with the revised work standards will find themselves chopped off from the payroll.

"Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who should not be here," Zuckerberg said.

(Image: AP)