6 ms·

Meta canceled job offers just weeks before engineers planned moves, say workers

44 points by dannyw 4y ago

FeistySkink 4y ago
I see this happening more and more in my LinkedIn feed recently from every big to medium international company I can think of. Mostly people who need visas seems to be affected.
yellsatclouds 4y ago
at least they did it before... maybe some government issue with visas? I'm have this paranoid supsicion that some powerful shadow (i.e. unkown) actor within the USA political landspace really wants to take Facebook/Meta down. I suppose they did not go along somebody's political plans? so little trustworthy information sure makes my imagination take off
- jjulius 4y ago
  What's not trustworthy about the simple fact that the company is having a really hard time right now and needs to trim fat to try and make it?
  - chadlavi 4y ago
    Trim the fat? From what I can tell no executives have lost their jobs or had their comp reduced...
    - dboreham 4y ago
      That's not what trim the fat means.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- twirlock 4y ago
- jzb 4y ago
  That's a weird take considering it's a company that's been very publicly and loudly saying it plans to make cuts due to falling revenue. They got hit hard by Apple's privacy changes and some other "macro headwinds."
- dominotw 4y ago
  Why does a certain 'paper of record' have to publish a hitpiece on facebook/meta every single day. Seems awfully suspicious. 1. Today: When Facebook Actually Broke My Brain https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/facebook-bipolar-disorder.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/facebook-bipolar-... 2. Yesterday: Skepticism, Confusion, Frustration: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Struggles https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/technology/meta-zuckerberg-metaverse.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/technology/meta-zuckerber... 3.Day before yesterday: This Is Life in the Metaverse https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/technology/metaverse-facebook-horizon-worlds.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/technology/metaverse-face... Does this obsession seem normal ?
  - wbsun 4y ago
    Someone tries to manipulate the market because of a short (or long?) position on FB?
    - yellsatclouds 4y ago
      nah, the people on such a hypotehtical unkown level work without money constraints; they will print more if needed.
dustedcodes 4y ago
This is obviously extremely disturbing to those who were looking forward to relocate and might have already taken irreversible steps to make it happen, but what would be even worse is if... - Meta had to reduce head count and would layoff existing staff whilst still bringing in new staff from oversea - Meta would relocate people only to lay them off shortly after It's not ideal, but perhaps this highlights how important it is to include a clause in the contract that says if employer changes their mind X weeks before intended relocation then they owe Y amount in reimbursement. If an employer refused to include such a clause then at least one knows that they might not put the money where the mouth is when they make an offer.
lumost 4y ago
This is a practice that will be regulated soon for profitable companies. Sure, a company undergoing severe layoffs/bankruptcy will be forgiven for this practice. One of the most profitable companies in the world will not be. I suspect we'll soon see breakup clauses in job offers for senior hires, or direct regulation requiring the company to pay at least X weeks compensation if they break the offer. This will probably have the side effect of terminating contract to hire practices at companies.
- dominotw 4y ago
  > I suspect we'll soon see breakup clauses in job offers for senior hires, or direct regulation requiring the company to pay at least X weeks compensation if they break the offer. I don't suspect this at all. What about candidates simply ghosting on join date. That would be regulated too?
  - 9dev 4y ago
    Obviously not, because candidates are generally in a worse position than the company they are interviewing to. There's nothing to balance here, regulation must hit corporations and protect employees.
    - dominotw 4y ago
      what worse position. Pretty sure the engineers quoted in the article will do just fine. Why does govt need to 'hit corporations' for privileged FB employees making 500k/yr+
      - lumost 4y ago
        If FaceBook does it, then the shady startup offering "30k + fake options" to new employees can do it too. FaceBook is setting an awful precedent.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
jzb 4y ago
Awful, but a lot less awful than canceling the offers after the moves. I don't think this kind of thing is going to change anytime soon as long as corporate America works the way it does today. - Budget cuts, layoffs, hiring freezes, etc. are always going to be held closely by the C-level / senior execs. For reasons good and bad ("we don't want to kill morale until we have to," "what if we did X, Y, or Z instead?" "if layoffs leak, the wrong people will start looking for new jobs...") that information isn't distributed until last-minute or you see the effects but don't know why. - The other folks are busy trying to hire and get people in the door before the door slams shut. They don't know the CFO is going to say "no more hiring, withdraw offers" until it happens. - Given the size of these organizations someone is always three weeks out from starting a job unless there's already a freeze in place. If companies weren't obligated to try to make profits at all costs rather than having a longer-term view of the world -- if they didn't have to worry about getting sued for doing the humane thing instead of the profitable one -- then more companies might be willing to honor those offers and eat profits a few quarters in order to do right by their employees.
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  This was my take. That would be truly awful to move somewhere and be out thousands of dollars just to find you don't have a job. I suspect there is little need at Facebook that needs a human presence, yet these huge companies continue to give in to demands from middle management despite doing just fine not having on premises for 2 years.
dekhn 4y ago
I guess the way I'd put it is: "sure, meta can do this and it might save them some money, but the reputational risk will stay with them forever". I don't even get Meta recruiters. I've talked to quite a few of them now ("Hey, we saw you were a Software Engineer at Google...") and they are spectacularly misleading, or just ghost you if you ask them challenging questions.
- Fatnino 4y ago
  10 years from now when a new intern has an offer from Meta, the Google recruiter will just point to this incident and steal them away.
demarq 4y ago
What I don’t understand is these are large companies who are well aware of their financial budgets ahead of time. there is just no excuse. I understand how small business owners may struggle, but if you are meta the least you can do is compensate candidates for the risk and lost income. The law for companies of this size should be three months compensation paired with a three month visa extension. This way companies will have to plan ahead, and said candidates be able to continue with a different company.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

44 points by dannyw 4y ago

I see this happening more and more in my LinkedIn feed recently from every big to medium international company I can think of. Mostly people who need visas seems to be affected.

yellsatclouds 4y ago

at least they did it before... maybe some government issue with visas? I'm have this paranoid supsicion that some powerful shadow (i.e. unkown) actor within the USA political landspace really wants to take Facebook/Meta down. I suppose they did not go along somebody's political plans? so little trustworthy information sure makes my imagination take off

jjulius 4y ago
What's not trustworthy about the simple fact that the company is having a really hard time right now and needs to trim fat to try and make it?
- chadlavi 4y ago
  Trim the fat? From what I can tell no executives have lost their jobs or had their comp reduced...
  - dboreham 4y ago
    That's not what trim the fat means.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
twirlock 4y ago
jzb 4y ago
That's a weird take considering it's a company that's been very publicly and loudly saying it plans to make cuts due to falling revenue. They got hit hard by Apple's privacy changes and some other "macro headwinds."
dominotw 4y ago
Why does a certain 'paper of record' have to publish a hitpiece on facebook/meta every single day. Seems awfully suspicious. 1. Today: When Facebook Actually Broke My Brain https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/facebook-bipolar-disorder.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/facebook-bipolar-... 2. Yesterday: Skepticism, Confusion, Frustration: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Struggles https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/technology/meta-zuckerberg-metaverse.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/technology/meta-zuckerber... 3.Day before yesterday: This Is Life in the Metaverse https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/technology/metaverse-facebook-horizon-worlds.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/technology/metaverse-face... Does this obsession seem normal ?
- wbsun 4y ago
  Someone tries to manipulate the market because of a short (or long?) position on FB?
  - yellsatclouds 4y ago
    nah, the people on such a hypotehtical unkown level work without money constraints; they will print more if needed.

dustedcodes 4y ago

This is obviously extremely disturbing to those who were looking forward to relocate and might have already taken irreversible steps to make it happen, but what would be even worse is if... - Meta had to reduce head count and would layoff existing staff whilst still bringing in new staff from oversea - Meta would relocate people only to lay them off shortly after It's not ideal, but perhaps this highlights how important it is to include a clause in the contract that says if employer changes their mind X weeks before intended relocation then they owe Y amount in reimbursement. If an employer refused to include such a clause then at least one knows that they might not put the money where the mouth is when they make an offer.

lumost 4y ago

This is a practice that will be regulated soon for profitable companies. Sure, a company undergoing severe layoffs/bankruptcy will be forgiven for this practice. One of the most profitable companies in the world will not be. I suspect we'll soon see breakup clauses in job offers for senior hires, or direct regulation requiring the company to pay at least X weeks compensation if they break the offer. This will probably have the side effect of terminating contract to hire practices at companies.

dominotw 4y ago
> I suspect we'll soon see breakup clauses in job offers for senior hires, or direct regulation requiring the company to pay at least X weeks compensation if they break the offer. I don't suspect this at all. What about candidates simply ghosting on join date. That would be regulated too?
- 9dev 4y ago
  Obviously not, because candidates are generally in a worse position than the company they are interviewing to. There's nothing to balance here, regulation must hit corporations and protect employees.
  - dominotw 4y ago
    what worse position. Pretty sure the engineers quoted in the article will do just fine. Why does govt need to 'hit corporations' for privileged FB employees making 500k/yr+
    - lumost 4y ago
      If FaceBook does it, then the shady startup offering "30k + fake options" to new employees can do it too. FaceBook is setting an awful precedent.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]

jzb 4y ago

Awful, but a lot less awful than canceling the offers after the moves. I don't think this kind of thing is going to change anytime soon as long as corporate America works the way it does today. - Budget cuts, layoffs, hiring freezes, etc. are always going to be held closely by the C-level / senior execs. For reasons good and bad ("we don't want to kill morale until we have to," "what if we did X, Y, or Z instead?" "if layoffs leak, the wrong people will start looking for new jobs...") that information isn't distributed until last-minute or you see the effects but don't know why. - The other folks are busy trying to hire and get people in the door before the door slams shut. They don't know the CFO is going to say "no more hiring, withdraw offers" until it happens. - Given the size of these organizations someone is always three weeks out from starting a job unless there's already a freeze in place. If companies weren't obligated to try to make profits at all costs rather than having a longer-term view of the world -- if they didn't have to worry about getting sued for doing the humane thing instead of the profitable one -- then more companies might be willing to honor those offers and eat profits a few quarters in order to do right by their employees.

stjohnswarts 4y ago
This was my take. That would be truly awful to move somewhere and be out thousands of dollars just to find you don't have a job. I suspect there is little need at Facebook that needs a human presence, yet these huge companies continue to give in to demands from middle management despite doing just fine not having on premises for 2 years.

dekhn 4y ago

I guess the way I'd put it is: "sure, meta can do this and it might save them some money, but the reputational risk will stay with them forever". I don't even get Meta recruiters. I've talked to quite a few of them now ("Hey, we saw you were a Software Engineer at Google...") and they are spectacularly misleading, or just ghost you if you ask them challenging questions.

Fatnino 4y ago
10 years from now when a new intern has an offer from Meta, the Google recruiter will just point to this incident and steal them away.

demarq 4y ago

What I don’t understand is these are large companies who are well aware of their financial budgets ahead of time. there is just no excuse. I understand how small business owners may struggle, but if you are meta the least you can do is compensate candidates for the risk and lost income. The law for companies of this size should be three months compensation paired with a three month visa extension. This way companies will have to plan ahead, and said candidates be able to continue with a different company.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]