Meta (META) has been wrapped up in controversy over the past few weeks. The tech giant, which owns Facebook and Instagram, recently faced criticism over how it conducted its recent job cuts, which kicked off in mid-February.
When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg first announced the job cuts in January, which involves firing 5% of the company’s workforce, he said that they would be based on performance, and that the company would be hiring new employees this year to replace those who are let go.
“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” said Zuckerberg in an internal memo in January.
Related: Meta’s recent layoffs take an unexpected turn
However, those fired later claimed they received high performance ratings from their managers in their latest quarterly review, sparking outrage on social media.
Before the job cuts kicked off, a leaked internal memo from Meta, which Business Insider viewed, revealed that its managers were given the green light to lay off high-performing employees if they couldn’t meet reduction targets solely by cutting low-performing employees.
Meta puts certain ex-employees on secret lists
Amid the controversy, a new report from Insider revealed that Meta secretly keeps blocklists that contain a list of former fired or laid-off employees who are not eligible for rehire despite previously having good performance records at the company.
Meta allegedly uses several systems to track a former employee’s eligibility to be rehired. Some former employees in the systems are flagged as “do not rehire” or a “non-regrettable attrition.”
Mark Zuckerberg is one of the richest people in the world, and his wealth largely comes from his stake in Meta Platforms.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Meta employees and managers who spoke to Insider claimed that the blocklists don’t just apply to workers who have violated the company’s workplace policies or performed poorly.
“If a manager didn’t like you, it wasn’t hard to put someone on a list,” said one former manager at Meta who spoke to Insider.
Allegedly, a manager can simply put an employee on a blocklist by filling out a form within minutes, and it is apparently extremely difficult for a former employee to get off of it. A Meta employee told Insider that even a sign-off from a company vice president wouldn’t be enough to remove a former employee from a blocklist.
Related: Meta makes a harsh move to prevent employees from leaking secrets
In a statement to Insider, a Meta spokesperson said that all managers are required to follow specific criteria when putting someone on a blocklist.
“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,” said the Meta spokesperson.
They also said that there are several reasons why a former employee may not be eligible for rehire.
“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,” said the spokesperson.
Meta recently cracked down on a growing problem
Meta is one of the many tech companies that have conducted job terminations this year and plans to do more. Microsoft, Intel, Workday, and Amazon are some of the many large companies that have chopped down their workforce this year.
More Labor:
- Meta’s recent layoffs take an unexpected turn
- Goldman Sachs defends a work policy shareholders fear
- Dell CEO sends a stern wake-up call to employees
So far in 2025, 81 tech companies have announced job cuts, resulting in over 22,600 employees being laid off, according to recent data from Layoffs.fyi.
Just last week, Meta fired about 20 employees who leaked “confidential information outside the company” after its internal communications were recently leaked to the public.
“We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent,” said a Meta spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more. We take this seriously, and will continue to take action when we identify leaks.”
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