The markets are and venture is entering the . So let’s talk about Facebook.
Facebook’s in the soup at the moment for a number of reasons that a host of excellent journalists are covering with rigor. , , and 补苍诲听 are in the mix as well. If you are behind, it’s on you.
Follow Crunchbase News on
The latest facet of the reporting cycle on Facebook that has caught my eye is Facebook’s employee retention risk. This that made the rounds this week claims that Facebook employees are looking for exits, but it’s hardly quantitive. This from earlier today has notes on internal discontent, as does from a few days back.
Their composite picture is Facebook workers鈥攍ong reported in and around Silicon Valley to be a bit hard to unstick from their current office chairs鈥攁re losing enthusiasm.
And this morning, some Glassdoor data鈥攖he Yelp for workplaces that every Valley company keeps tabs on鈥攖hat shows Facebook slipping in the workplace rankings. So the company’s punishing run of corporate mistakes and risible PR choices are taking a measurable toll, although a smaller impact than you might have thought. Here’s Ina:
“After a year of scandals, Facebook lost its place as the best company to work at, according to聽. Facebook fell from first to seventh in the survey.”
The trend is probably more interesting than the result. If Facebook’s ranking continues to dip over time it could suffer from a two-sided issue: hiring聽and retention. In a vying industry rife with wealthy competition looking to poach your best talent and compete for new hires, losing luster can be a bleeding process. And Facebook just dropped from first to one notch lower than Linkedin in the Glassdoor report.
My question is if antsy Facebook employees looking for something new to do will leave the social giant for another behemoth, like Google, or jump into startups. Of course, it will be a mixture of both, but which way the weighting lands will matter. Facebook’s loss could be the gain of a host of myriad smaller companies if they can attract the sort of talent that Facebook has long been loath聽to share.
Even more pertinent to our readers: how many Facebook employees may now leave to start their own companies? How many will go to work on new social products? Sure, Snap isn’t going to harm Facebook anytime soon, but there will be a next It social network, and there’s no guarantee that Facebook will be able to buy it.
And, of course, some Facebook employees just might stop working. The firm has generated so much money that not all its current denizens need to remain in the working classes. So many even go full-leisure and become investors.
In a few more months we’ll have another round or two of anecdotal reporting concerning Facebook morale, especially if the company continues to suffer from self-inflicted injury (here’s , as an example). But what I’m keeping an eye out for is smaller companies announcing that they have a shiny new ex-Facebook exec or notes from founders proud to have picked up Facebook engineering talent.
That may not happen; Facebook may be able to use its titanic wealth, history of employee retention, and more to keep staff in place. But in a talent market as broken as Silicon Valley’s in 2018, it’s tough to see that bearing out completely.
Microsoft worth more than Apple? Facebook with an employee retention problem? Bitcoin pulling an anti-2017? It’s an odd year.
Illustration:
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.


67.1K Followers