Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth said that employees who are unhappy with the current policies of the company are “free to quit,” as per a report by Business Insider.
The report refers to an internal chat in which an employee criticised Meta for reducing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes and allegedly suppressing internal dissent, among other concerns.
Bosworth responded that any employee who believes it’s acceptable to leak information to the media due to policy disagreements “should consider working elsewhere.”
An employee replied, stating that blaming leaks was not the solution and that Meta employees felt disrespected.
Meta recently implemented its latest round of layoffs, which triggered a backlash from employees.
The company had stated in an internal memo that it planned to lay off around 3,600 employees who are identified as “low performers.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the decision as a step to “raise the bar on performance management and move out low performers faster.”
However, Meta is not the only company in the US to change its DEI policies under President Donald Trump’s rule.
Other major companies
On 5 February, Google notified employees in an internal email that it would no longer set diversity hiring targets and was reassessing the future of its DEI reports.
However, this rollback may not necessarily affect its workforce diversity in other regions, said Karan Bhatia, global head of government affairs and public policy at Google, in a virtual interview with ET.
“Changes to the programmes that we’ve made are really focused on the United States, informed by recent legal and policy changes in the US,” Bhatia said.
Ecommerce major Amazon has removed the phrase “inclusion and diversity”from its annual report.
McDonald’s has discontinued its diversity targets and external surveys.
The other side
On the other hand, some companies continue to prioritise diversity and inclusion.
Apple has urged its shareholders to reject anti-DEI proposals, arguing that such restrictions would hinder the company’s ability to run its business effectively.
Costco rejected a shareholder proposal to review its DEI initiatives, with 98% of votes in favour of keeping them.
Cisco and Delta Airlines have defended their diversity initiatives, emphasising that they are crucial to their long-term success.
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order to abolish federal DEI programmes.
Trump’s executive orders have directed federal agencies to place DEI staff on leave, meaning all federal DEI workers are on paid leave and are expected to be dismissed soon. DEI programmes have been scrapped, with agencies required to end DEI training, contracts, and initiatives, as well as remove DEI-focused public websites and social media accounts.
