Metaplatforms Inc META Shares jumped Wednesday after the company announced it was laying off more than 11,000 employees in an effort to reduce costs.

Even after Wednesday’s rally, Meta shares are down a combined 69.7% year-to-date, and some employees have begun questioning the CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s obsession with creating the Metaverse.

Zuckerberg takes responsibility: Zuckerberg announced the renaming of Facebook to Meta Platforms about a year ago, but the transition has been far from smooth.

In addition to slowing user and revenue growth, Meta recently reported that its Metaverse division, Reality Labs, lost $9.4 billion in the first three quarters of 2022.

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In an open letter to Meta employees on Wednesday, Zuckerberg apologized for the layoffs and said he takes full responsibility for not anticipating the company’s slowdown in 2022. Zuckerberg told employees that Meta needed to become more capital efficient in the new environment.

“We’ve shifted more of our resources to a smaller number of high-priority growth areas — like our AI discovery engine, our ads and business platforms, and our long-term vision for the metaverse.” said Zuckerberg.

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While Zuckerberg seems confident that the Metaverse is the next long-term growth catalyst for his company, Business Insider reported on Wednesday that at least some former Meta employees are questioning Zuckerberg’s tunnel vision.

“That’s the only thing Mark wants to talk about,” a former Meta Director said of the Metaverse.

Another former employee who recently left the company said there’s still a huge disconnect between the hype of the Metaverse and the state of the actual product.

“There’s still not much to touch or look at, let alone use,” the person said.

Analyst take: Meta Analysts Say Company’s Focus on Metaverse and Difficult…