USA 
United Kingdom
Certain former employees of Meta are placed on a block list preventing them from ever returning to the company, a Business Insider report has said.
BI spoke with five former employees who revealed that managers can add former employees to a ‘do not hire’ list in a matter of minutes.
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson confirmed there are “clear criteria for when someone is marked ineligible for rehire that are applied to all departing employees.”
The spokesperson disputed claims that a single manager could add a former employee to a block list in “minutes,” stating: “There are checks and balances in the process so that a single manager cannot unilaterally tag someone ineligible without support."
“We determine, at the time of separation, the reason for the employee's departure — policy violation, performance termination, voluntary resignation etc,” they continued. “That, along with the last rating prior to separation and any other recent performance signals, determines whether an employee is eligible for rehire or not.”
What happens when staff are placed on a Meta block list?
The former employees and managers who spoke with BI reported that being placed on a block list is no small issue—one engineer who was blocked from being rehired, for example, was told that even backing from a company vice president would not get them off the list.
While the Meta spokesperson suggested employees are only placed on a block list due to performance issues or policy violations, two ex-Meta workers who spoke to BI said they marked up despite consistently earning ‘Exceeding Expectations’ ratings during performance reviews.
They said that after applying to rejoin the tech giant through a third-party recruitment agency, they were informed they were “ineligible” for re-hire.
Those employees claimed that managers have the discretion to add employees to the ‘do-not-rehire’ list with freedom.
“If a manager didn't like you, it wasn't hard to put someone on a list,” one said.
One manager reported it was as easy as “just filling out a form.” The report did not confirm how many employees were on the list.
In February, Meta began a round of ‘performance-based’ layoffs, with roughly 4,000 employees - around 5% of its workforce - expected to lose their jobs.
‘Never heard of anything like this’ – ex-Google CHRO reacts to Meta’s blocklists
The reaction from the HR industry and beyond about the unconventional policy has been marked.
“I've never heard of anything like this,” Laszlo Bock, former CHRO at Google, wrote in a LinkedIn post. “I've sometimes heard an exec say, "don't ever re-hire this person,” but never seen a large scale, systematic approach like this.”
Some HR leaders noted they have seen ‘block lists’ used elsewhere. Michele Lodin, Vice President of Total Rewards and HR Operations at Clover Health, commented: “I have seen a no-rehire list used, primarily in environments where dismissal for cause and/or other violations exist that would make continued employment risky for the company.”
But Lodin noted in that case there was “an appeals process in place.”
Another former Meta employee also commented on the report. The ex-Meta marketing executive said the policy in place is “related to company risk,” with concerns around boomerang employees returning with “malicious intent.”
"Meta already struggles with corporate espionage and leaks so this risk mitigation is from lawyers,” she added.
