The Great Facebook Employee Migration Didn’t Happen

If you visit almost any news site at the end of September, you will see a lot of detailed headlines Facebook files, which features thousands of internal company documents that illustrate in great detail how Facebook chooses profits to tackle issues like hate speech and teen depression. As the weeks go by, if you turn on most cable news channels, you will find hundreds of manicured heads discussing what this latest scandal means for the social platform. largest society on earth. All people can say is the massive leak, the response of the Houses of Parliament, and what the potential consequences will be. People I spoke to in the tech and media communities wondered if this was (finally) the death knell for Facebook – I know, I know, we should call it “Meta” by now. , but really, who is calling it Meta now? —Not that Facebook, I mean Meta, will be shutting down due to the revelations, but it will certainly see a exodus employees are ashamed to work for such an evil company; that there will be a mass exodus of advertisers who will move to more ethical pastures; and that — maybe — this is such a big problem that even Sheryl Sandberg can leave.

However, over the past two months there has been little or no discussion of the latest scandal — not on the company’s internal messaging platform, according to a senior employee and people close to the company. Facebook, Workplace, on internal company conference calls or in some open offices. As senior staff said, it’s mostly business as usual. According to senior staff, the only real gossip is people wondering if they work with Frances Haugen after she went public as a accuser Facebook leaked documents to NS The Wall Street Journal, and then other stores. “On one hand, it’s a bit odd,” the employee told me. “You’re going to be in a meeting or on a conference call and nobody’s really discussing it.” But he adds: “On the other hand, when you work at Facebook, there’s a bunch of scandals that you have to deal with — they just bleed together and if you get caught up in each one, you won’t never get anything done.”

Outside the company, the scandal was huge; Internally, employees certainly sense it, but it doesn’t have the same charisma as people who don’t work there. Now that the weeks have passed, all of the speculation about employee departures and advertiser migrations hasn’t really surfaced — or maybe not yet. Certainly, there have been employees who have left the company. And while Insiders report Last week, it became somewhat easier for other companies to recruit engineers from Facebook (a previously impossible task), but there has not been a flood of technical talent. which some have envisioned happening due to the Facebook Files. “It doesn’t affect hiring in a very respectable way,” the senior employee explains—at least not yet. The only thing that’s changing at Facebook, the employee said, is a slightly increased offer of financial packages to people thinking of leaving, something Facebook hasn’t done aggressively before.

In fact, as with all things technology, what draws people to stay at a company like Facebook is not ethics, but money and accessibility. And from a financial perspective, money is something to think about. According to Levels.fyi, which tracks wages, engineer at Facebook can earn up to $855ka per year including stock options and bonuses. That does not include Additional benefits, in addition to things like insurance, there is an on-site barber and bicycle repair shop, free meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) five days a week, a $3,000 “health reimbursement” la next year, a video game room, valet parking, dry cleaning and laundry on site, phone bill insurance, and continuity. Oh, and according to Quora users, there might as well be bonus for agreeing to join the company up to $100,000 for engineers at the company. And those are just ordinary employees. Yes stories rock star senior engineers around Silicon Valley get paid up to $100 million to work for tech companies. But the staff at Facebook told me that it’s not just money that entices people to stay there.

A former Facebook product manager who left the company before the Facebook document scandal broke told me that when he worked at the company amid other external turmoil, engineers and developers were The design he worked on became unacceptable for the constant mockery of the company, which tended to focus almost exclusively on the impact they had and the fact that they were building something that made a lot of people are touched. “You have to understand, you’re working in a place where almost 3 billion people, almost half the planet, are seeing something and interacting with something you’re already working on,” the former employee said. “It was a hell of a lot more impact than just another negative story about Facebook in The New York Times.“The product manager didn’t choose to leave the company because of the series of scandals that happened while he was at Facebook, but rather for the same reason other engineers and designers eventually left: either because more money elsewhere or just a change of scenery at another company.

But that’s not to say Haugen’s Facebook Profile and jaw-dropping testimony don’t affect the morale of the company. One area where employees are struggling is the corporate side. According to senior employees, those who work inside Facebook with other Facebook employees mostly see only the positives and impacts of their work, but employees who communicate with ad buyers, Large corporations and influential users, including celebrities and politicians, are having a tougher time. “There is nothing great about being the face of Facebook in the Top 100 Brands or for the offices of some of the politicians and celebrities on the platform,” the employee said.

Then, of course, there’s the Sheryl Sandberg of it all. In the past, when there’s been an uproar about something Facebook has done, whether it’s privacy-related or product rollout issues, Sandberg has stayed on the sidelines, spearheading the public relations effort. them to try to change opinion. of Facebook. With Facebook Files, however, she’s almost non-existent. Outwardly, many have speculated that this could mean she’s one foot out the door, but from a lot of people I’ve spoken to people who work at Facebook, advise the company, or know an individual. Sandberg, there’s no immediate indication that she’s leaving Facebook or her role as chief executive. If anything, a person close to the company theorizes, Sandberg will only leave Facebook if the scandalous news subsides, making the company stand out in a quiet time. “But honestly, if that’s the case, it’s going to be a long time before that happens,” the person said. “Ever had a moment of calm on Facebook?”

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