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Facebook is in crisis, again.
This time, the company tried to criticize its critics accused of fueling anti-Semitism while minimizing the extent of public revelations of Russian electoral interference in 2016 – revelations revealed by a New York Times investigation. .
The company went into a panic, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg defending his position during a teleconference with reporters as further leaks occurred regarding his working relationship with Sheryl Sandberg, director of operations at Facebook. What are we doing now?
Business Insider spoke to 3 former Facebook employees and a current employee of the company to get an idea of what informed people expect from Facebook. These insiders warn that the morale of employees could suffer, which will complicate the task of Facebook to hire and retain the essential talent it needs to cope with this crisis.
Facebook representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Facebook scandals are more personal than ever
Facebook's current problems do not resemble the past crises the company has gone through, insiders said.
"If you look at the history of the company, there are many times it has been attacked from the outside … but we often feel that internally, the leaders are above, "said a former employee. This person discussed the company's difficult post-IPO period, as well as questions about whether Facebook could actually transform its business to take advantage of the smartphone boom, as examples of problems that Facebook's leadership effectively prevented.
"This time … it's actually a criticism of leadership." It's a new kind of threat that Facebook has not yet experienced … it's a leadership who fails in one way or another … [a] crisis of confidence in management, "said this former employee.
Another former employee blamed some of Facebook's recent crises on the corporate culture set up by Zuckerberg and Sandberg, where the good news came to the top and the bad news never came to the top. CEO's office.
"I think that they would certainly have been kept in the dark about these issues as long as possible," said this person. "They have created a culture of leadership to bring only good news and to deflect bad ones."
"They will change something as a result." The external message will be something about some people already gone [Facebook], others are being redeployed, and a new task force or something to do it better, "predicted the person.
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Relentless pace of crises can hurt employee morale at a critical time
As the scandals mounted, the change in attitude towards Facebook over the past year has been dramatic.
"Suddenly [it] from a little darling to a safe haven, "said another former employee.
"The government hated us, friends were starting to dislike you, the press was starting to talk about the constant corrosive effect … all the difficulties that keep new people from taking a long break …" these leaders do they know how to save the company? ? ""
Part of the problem lies in Facebook's rapid growth rate. At the end of 2017, the company had about 25,000 employees, compared to 17,000 at the end of 2016. The previous year, it had about 12,700 people and in 2014 it had a little over 9,000.
In other words, most employees simply did not spend a lot of time in the company – which means they may have less incentive to stay on the job to clean up the mess and fix some the most difficult problems Facebook has had to face.
"Most of the members of the society have not been around for more than two years, so they have not been in a crisis like this, they may not be emotionally invested in society. 39, like the first thousand, "said a former employee. I said. They summarized employees' perceptions of leadership attitudes in the following way: "Hey, we've made many mistakes, and now it's up to you to clean them up."
According to a recent leak, Facebook's employee morale has already plummeted, the proportion of employees 'optimistic about the future of the company' rising from 84% to 52% at during the last year.
Where will the money stop?
It is not yet clear whether we will see significant departures as a result of the latest revelations.
One of the former employees hinted that it was unlikely, pointing out that the chief communications officer, Rachel Whetstone, had left in August, and Elliot Schrage – communications and policy officer – had already announced his intention to leave.
"Mark and Sheryl are not going anywhere, nobody else is really worth it to get rid of, so I do not really expect the heads to roll," said L & # 39, former employee.
A current employee, meanwhile, suggested that Joel Kaplan, Facebook's policy officer in Washington, could eventually leave his post.
Kaplan is the head of Facebook's policy in Washington, and a rare conservative of the famous liberal company, having already served at the White House. Kaplan criticized employees earlier this year after appearing publicly to support his long-time friend, Brett Kavanaugh, as a Supreme Court nominee at the time, testified before Congress regarding allegations of mischief. sexual misconduct. According to the Times, Kaplan has played a key role in the social network's attempts to minimize the spread of misinformation on its platform to the public.
A former employee said that some of Sandberg's lieutenants and other mid-level executives could leave (or be forced to leave) in the midst of the turmoil.
Meanwhile, it is almost guaranteed that there will be some sort of discipline for those leaks that spoke to the New York Times.
"There will be layoffs from that, this team is very good at what it does," added the former employee. "Ironically, if these resources had considered external manipulation via Facebook, we might not be where we are today."
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