According to The New York Times, some Meta employees are being actively pushed to seek for other roles within the firm and embrace the latest push into augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), while others are opting to desert to competitors such as Apple.
Since rebranding as Meta and lauding the “metaverse’s” future, Facebook is reported to have undergone a profound makeover, establishing hundreds of new positions to create gear and software for AR and VR. More over a quarter of Meta’s active job advertisements are for AR or VR employment, but the firm has increased its internal hiring in recent months. Also Apple Targeting Indie Director Over ‘Apple-Man’ Film Title Trademark
According to reports, Meta is encouraging its employees in products, engineering, and research to apply for new roles in the company’s developing AR and VR teams, implying that employees must transfer in order to thrive. Other employees who formerly worked in the company’s social networking divisions have been promoted to head the same duties, with an emphasis on AR and VR. Moreover, Employees were allegedly required to develop a positive attitude toward the metaverse and innovation in the AR and VR field, or they would be fired.
In the drive to bring a compelling, mainstream AR and VR experience to market, Meta has also targeted talent from Apple and Microsoft. Apple has paid up to $180,000 in stock incentives to some of its engineers in a bid to keep them from leaving.
According to current and former Meta workers who spoke to The New York Times, the change has caused significant internal disturbance. While some employees were thrilled about Meta’s new direction, others questioned the firm’s approach to employees and if the company was ignoring existing problems.
One former Instagram employee left from his position because he felt his work would no longer be valuable to the firm, while another stated that they believed Meta was not best suited to construct the metaverse and were searching for work at a rival as a result.
What Meta’s shift toward AR and VR implies for Facebook and Instagram is unclear, but teams working on these two social media platforms are claimed to have downsized in the last four months and are facing budget cuts. According to a Meta spokeswoman, there have been no “major” employment cutbacks to current teams as a result of the company’s new approach.