Zuckerberg grilled the staff meeting after the Meta layoff announcement

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by staff at an all-hands meeting Thursday, following the Facebook parent company’s announcement that it would lay off another 10,000 workers.

Staff reportedly asked Zuckerberg how they can be expected to trust the company’s leadership after the surprise second round of layoffs, according to The Washington Post.

“I would guess that the way people would judge whether you trust me and want to work in this company is whether we succeed in making progress toward the overall stated goals,” Zuckerberg said, according to the Post, while he also acknowledged that “it’s a fair question.”

Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that Meta would cut 10,000 jobs and close 5,000 vacancies, citing a “difficult economic environment” amid high interest rates and geopolitical instability.

“At this point, I think we should prepare for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years,” Zuckerberg said. “Higher interest rates lead to a leaner economy, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation.”

The extra round of layoffs comes after Meta’s CEO previously told employees in November that the massive cuts were being made in an effort to “minimize the chance of having to carry out large-scale layoffs like this in the foreseeable future,” the Post reported.