Facebook parent Meta Platforms dropped 36 spots on Glassdoor’s annual ranking of the best places to work in the U.S., falling from No. 11 to 47 in a year marked by major public relations crises.
The company, which rebranded from Facebook last year but continues to operate the social media platform by that name, has made the list for 12 years, but this is its lowest spot in the 100-company ranking.
Glassdoor said employees spoke highly of the company for granting them autonomy in their work, providing extensive benefits, and giving them the chance to work on a product with great reach and with coworkers they enjoyed.
But many also described negative issues like unwanted public scrutiny, lack of action from leadership on platform issues and questions about the company’s future direction.
Meta has been under renewed fire from lawmakers and the public after a former employee leaked thousands of pages of internal research about how its products affect users. Last fall, the former employee, Frances Haugen, shared the documents with several news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, as well as Congress, and filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
One of the documents that most enraged many lawmakers showed that the company had conducted research finding its Instagram photo-sharing platform exacerbated mental health issues for a small number of teen girls who responded to a survey. Other documents revealed a system Facebook seemingly used to give special consideration to some high-profile users when it came to content-moderation decisions.
The company has played down those reports, but has also taken steps to heed lawmakers’ critiques, like pausing work on a version of Instagram for kids.
Prior to Haugen’s leaks, the company, like many of its social media peers, had been facing heat over its decision to suspend former President Donald Trump from the platform in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, as well as its handling of Covid-19 misinformation.
Facebook has had several notable ups and downs on the list over the years. The company claimed the top spot in 2018 but slid in the following year on fallout from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Facebook’s rating on the list came in this year at 4.3 out of 5; the Glassdoor algorithm is based on reviews and ratings left by employees in a 12-month period ended October 2021.
Glassdoor ranks chipmaker Nvidia as the best place to work in 2022, followed by HubSpot and Bain & Co., all with a score of 4.6 out of 5.
Another tech company that saw a big drop on the list was Zoom, down to No. 100 from No. 22 last year. Its fall marks the largest drop on the list. On the plus side, employees identified benefits, unlimited paid time off and passion for building a product during a period of growth, but some perceived a negative shift in the culture during high business demand and the fast-paced work environment.
In all, 40 of the 100 companies featured on the U.S. list came from the tech sector, up from 28 the year before. The list features companies with at least 1,000 employees.