Tech

Facebook is no longer one of the 10 best places to work, according to Glassdoor

Key Points
  • As calls for a Facebook breakup gain support, the social media company's ranking on Glassdoor's list of best places to work slid for a second year in a row, tumbling 16 spots to 23rd.
  • Facebook's award score fell from a 4.5 to 4.4 out of a perfect 5.
  • Google and Apple also fell in the ranking. Amazon did not make the list.
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, October 23, 2019.
Erin Scott | Reuters

Facebook's ranking on Glassdoor's list of best places to work slid for a second year in a row, tumbling 16 spots to 23rd.

Its desirability ranking dropped from 4.5 to 4.4 out of a perfect 5, according to employees who use the Glassdoor site to evaluate their employers anonymously.

The top three spots on the 2020 list are held by HubSpot, Bain & Co. and DocuSign, respectively.

It's a precipitous fall for Facebook, which claimed the top spot in Glassdoor's 2018 rankings. It fell to No. 7 in the 2019 list, following reports in March 2018 that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had improperly accessed the data of 87 million Facebook users.

Facebook's drop comes as regulators put the social media company in the crosshairs of antitrust investigations. The 2020 Glassdoor rankings show that employees no longer regard working at the social media company as they once did. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the company struggled to recruit college graduates and software engineers, former Facebook recruiters told CNBC in May.

Glassdoor bases its ranking on eight factors, including work/life balance, senior management and compensation and benefits. To be ranked, companies must have at least 1,000 employees and receive at least 75 ratings across the eight categories during the eligibility period.

Among the complaints, employees told Glassdoor that Facebook is now "painstakingly slow" when it comes to making decisions on matters of privacy due to its numerous scandals over the past two years. Employees also complained that high-profile projects are extremely political and there is a lack of work-life balance.

"There's been a lot of external criticism that's been coming toward Facebook," said Glassdoor community expert Sarah Stoddard. "There's a high expectation for employees to be highly productive which leads to long working hours, and that's a reason we keep seeing Facebook drop."

Despite its declining score and fall in the rankings, Facebook remains well above the average Glassdoor company rating of 3.5. Employees praised Facebook's mission-driven culture, the talent at the company and the perks and benefits.

"Employees continue to call out that the mission of the company is part of what drives them," Stoddard said.

Facebook was not the only tech company to drop in the rankings. Google fell three spots, landing at 11th place with an award score of 4.5. Apple dropped 13 spots to 84th and an award score of 4.3. Amazon once again failed to crack the list of 100.

Microsoft, meanwhile, climbed up 13 spots, landing at No. 21 with an award score of 4.4.

Here is Glassdoor's list.

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