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Social media and tech giant Meta has gotten some bad press in recent months, not just for CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s about-face embrace of President Donald Trump and several of his ornerier MAGA ideals. The firm also drew jeers for its heavy-handed January purge of purportedly underperforming employees – most of whom have unwittingly joined the ranks of former Meta staffers that the company officially bans from ever being rehired, according to a recent report. News that the owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms maintains a de facto blacklist of myriad ex-employees won’t help Zuckerberg’s hardening reputation as a former boy-faced geek who turned into a Silicon Valley lout.
The revelation, published last Wednesday by Business Insider (BI), described how even former workers with sterling track records are being blocked by the no-rehire list – in some cases despite being recruited by current Meta executives who consider them ideal for important job openings. One of the most illustrative examples of the list’s impact was a senior engineer who became an employment casualty of Meta’s 2022 layoff of 10,000 employees – a portion of the estimated 35,600 jobs the company’s cut since 2020. Despite having gotten glowing reviews from managers during his earlier four-year tenure, the engineer’s applications to over 20 job vacancies at Meta were eventually rejected, starkly contrasting initially enthusiastic responses from recruiters and hiring managers.
When he finally pressed those contacts for why they’d gone from red hot to ice cold, he was informed the company had designated him as “ineligible for rehire” on what was revealed to be Meta’s blacklist of ex-staffers. “(F)ormer employees and managers confirmed that Meta uses multiple systems to track rehire ineligibility, including a ‘non-regrettable attrition” designation and a “do not rehire” flag, though the exact mechanisms and number of affected employees remain unclear,” BI reported. “Interviews with five former employees across different divisions, along with internal emails and messages viewed by BI, revealed multiple instances of workers who were laid off and discovered they were barred from rejoining Meta after applying for new positions at the company despite good performance records in their previous stints.
” Revelation of the blacklisting system – which isn’t unique to the tech giant, though its version stands out for its breadth – follows generally negative reactions to Zuckerberg’s January layoff announcement. Meta cut about 3,600 people – or 5% of Meta’s workforce – whom the increasingly churlish CEO described as “low performers.” But in noting his “intention of backfilling” those unwillingly vacated jobs, Zuckerberg also sought to reinforce the new backside-kicking, tough guy CEO posture he struck in earlier comments to podcaster Joe Rogan.
Those included airing MAGA–esque complaints that business needs more “masculine energy,” and to reestablish “a culture that celebrates the aggression” as part of that. Now, the world learns, that antagonism was previously being directed at ex-employees in secrecy with its no-hire list. Most former Meta staffers BI spoke with were surprised to learn they’d been blackballed by the company in spite of the good reviews and work relationships they’d established there.
Some also indicated that same kind of corporate behavior was why they hadn’t been overly keen about reapplying in the first place. “It’s the worst company I’ve ever worked for,” the senior engineer said. “But they also pay the best.
If I could get in there for a couple more years and make bank, I would do it.” Meta’s no-rehire list makes even that pragmatic employment aspiration a nonstarter. Company officials told BI the system maintaining the scroll of banned names automatically places many departing workers on it as a part of their exit processing.
Other company executives cited said the established practice of stipulating legitimate work criticisms or violations of company rules when adding new names to the never-to-return list has repeatedly been ignored. Some managers were said to have blacklisted exiting workers for personal reasons – including just not liking them much. But as sinister, malevolent, career-damaging, and essentially petty as the blacklist seems to be, it’s also not illegal.
Such no-hire cataloguing would have to actively specify employee categories protected by anti-discrimination laws to run afoul of them. Meanwhile, the routine banishment of ex-workers apparently isn’t exclusive to Meta. Although Laszlo Bock, the former Google head of people operations, told BI that “a company having a ‘do not rehire’ designation for former employees .
.. is very, very rare,” some anecdotal evidence suggests it’s more common than people might think.
Redditors responding to the BI article on the r/technology subreddit were generally blase about its findings. Several people claimed they’d also been blacklisted by former employers – some of whom warned them of the ban when they left. Businesses that contributors cited included a leading home improvement chain and a few other large “distributors.
” Other Reddit commentators alleged the practice is even more common than that. “Lots of companies have ‘do not hire lists,’” wrote Redditor TheElusiveFox. “How useful they are is different from company to company, but they are kind of necessary, especially in large companies.
” “I worked for Cisco and they don’t rehire employees no matter how good they are or if they left on their own accord or were let go,” agreed Travelerdude. “Usually when they’re let go it is the bottom 5% attrition policy so then why would they rehire.” “Guess who else,” PalebloodPervert asked as he expanded the list of companies that purportedly maintain similar lists.
“Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc.” For its part, Meta didn’t deny having the no-rehire list. But it also dismissed suggestions that former employees were being randomly added to it by petty or vindictive managers.
“There are clear criteria for when someone is marked ineligible for rehire that are applied to all departing employees and there are checks and balances in the process so that a single manager cannot unilaterally tag someone ineligible without support,” Meta said in a statement to BI. “We determine, at the time of separation, the reason for the employee’s departure – policy violation, performance termination, voluntary resignation, etc. – and that, along with the last rating prior to separation and any other recent performance signals, determines whether an employee is eligible for rehire or not.
” Be that as it may, even though many social media responses contended Meta is far from the only company using no-rehire blacklists, it was clear that most people reacting to the report viewed the practice as disloyal, underhanded, and spiteful. For those reasons alone, business owners probably ought to think twice before adopting this particular human resources tool — and decide whether doing so is worth the potential risk of that policy getting out to current and prospective employees. – Inc.
/Tribune News Service.
