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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.”
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.