If, for the 12th year, Meta (Facebook) manages to integrate the top 100 of the most attractive American companies from the point of view of the employees, it seems to have left the first echelons. In 2021, its fall even accelerated.
Every year, the Glassdoor website publishes a ranking of the best companies to work for in the United States. Based on declarative surveys of employees, this ranking has long been dominated by the giants of Silicon Valley, anxious to promote a framework and progressive working conditions, between big checks at the end of the month, free coffee at all hours and tables. self-service table tennis. This formula has always earned Facebook a good ranking, but, in 2021, it is an understatement to say that the results were less convincing: Meta (Facebook’s parent company) fell from 11th to 47th place in this ranking.
Several phenomena contributed to this vertiginous fall. If, in times of Covid-19 and teleworking, the attachment of employees to their company could have been impacted, the new direction of the company, which is now focusing on the creation of a “new Internet” with the metaverse, has not necessarily won everyone’s support. Above all, Facebook has never been hit so hard by repeated scandals, which has had a strong impact on the notoriety of the company – and arguably precipitated its desire to change its name.
This is what emerges from the data collected by the Glassdoor site. The employees evoke internal difficulties, a bad image with the general public, the lack of action on the part of the management on basic problems or questions on the future direction of the firm. Needless to say, the Facebook Papers, based on the revelations of whistleblower Frances Haugen, were at the heart of employee concerns. They exposed worrying dysfunctions and generally conveyed the idea that Facebook put its profit before the health and safety of its users.
A fall initiated by Cambridge Analytica
The time when Facebook employees – who have managed to achieve the feat of being present for 12 years in the top 100 of Glassdoor – had consecrated their company as the very best place to work in the United States seems a long time ago. However, that was only three years ago, in 2018. The revelations linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal started the fall. Meta remains an attractive employer nonetheless, with a score of 4.3 out of 5 ranking it among the 50 companies with the best working conditions in the United States.
So what is the # 1 business? This is Nvidia, manufacturer of graphics cards, ARM chips and specialist in computing circuits for artificial intelligence. Just behind, we find HubSpot (professional software publisher) and Bain & Company (strategy consulting firm). The tech sector is the biggest provider of companies within this top 100 of employee satisfaction. Indeed, 40 of the 100 firms listed are technology companies. One of them experienced the biggest fall, even more violent than Facebook: Zoom. The editor of the videoconferencing platform, which has met with great success with the appearance of Covid-19, climbed to 22nd place in the ranking last year. This year, he brought up the rear by tumbling down to 100th position.