Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is on a cost-cutting spree, say insiders. According to reports, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is looking to slash costs by 10 percent in coming months. This will mean employee layoffs, say experts.

But Meta, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is holding its plans close to the vest. The social-media giant needs to make the cuts due to stalling growth and increased competition, according to people familiar with the situation.

Instead of handing out a flood of pink slips, Meta is reorganizing departments and giving affected employees a limited window to apply for other roles within the company, according to current and former managers familiar with the matter. If they don’t apply within 30 days, they are out of a job.

“We’ve been public about the need for our teams to shift to meet these challenges,” Meta spokesman Tracy Clayton said.

Meta Platforms’ Vice President of Remote Presence and Engineering, Maher Saba, has directed managers to identify and “move to exit” poor performers, The Information reported.

In a post to Meta’s internal messaging system viewed by The Information, Saba wrote, “If a direct report is coasting or a low performer, they are not who we need; they are failing this company. As a manager, you cannot allow someone to be net neutral or negative for Meta.”

This move comes after Meta, like other tech companies, announced a freeze on hiring.

The company reported having 83,553 employees at the end of the second quarter 2022, up 32 percent from a year ago. While they did see a spike in staff, stocks went down. Meta’s share price is off more than 56.6 percent so far in 2022, and the company’s market value has dropped more than $685 billion since its peak in September 2021 as of the close on Sept. 20, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Photo: Seen on the screen of a device in Sausalito, Calif., Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces their new name, Meta, during a virtual event on Oct. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)