Culture | Ex-Facebook employee mocks 'work cult' in YouTube post

Facebook’s employee experience history is as divisive as it is controversial.

For many employees, its ‘forward-thinking’ Millennial-run tech start-up culture seems like an ultimate workplace goal. It’s sleek, it’s trendy and it’s definitely a name that will make any CV stand out in the future. However, reports from ex-employees claim that all may not be as it seems at the social media juggernaut.

Earlier this year, journalist Salvador Rodriquez penned a scathing article on CNBC’s site referencing what he called a ‘cult like’ working culture at Facebook. The article outlined the numerous accounts of sexual harassment alleged by employees over the last few years, the controversy surrounding Head of Policy Joel Kaplan’s appearance at the hearing of Brett Kavanaugh.

The following emergency townhall (a company-wide meeting) prompted a young employee to get up and speak directly to COO Sheryl Sandberg, and said: “I was reticent to speak, Sheryl, because the pressure for us to act as though everything is fine and that we love working here is so great that it hurts,” she said, according to multiple former Facebook employees who witnessed the event.