Meta employees look to quit their jobs amid stock crash

Shares of parent Meta on Facebook and Instagram have fallen more than 40% over the past six months — and some employees burdened with underwater stock options are looking to exits.

“Join Meta Nearby [all time stock high]Said a Meta employee this week in a trending thread on Blind, the company’s message board with verified members. “What should I do?”

Another “Mitamat” replied, “Leave this nonsense place.”

“Same boat,” a third said, adding that they were “already doing interviews” at other companies.

“Duh, you’re supposed to be thinking Meta, Metamats and me. Ask yourself if this train of ideas is good for the company.” “I’m just kidding…it’s too bad.”

Meta is facing a rush factor as its share price fell from an all-time high of more than $380 in September to $216.49 on Friday. It started slipping last fall as a series of damned leaks It puts enormous political pressure on the company And Meta is starting to feel the blow of billions of dollars in privacy changes from Apple and Google hits its advertising activity.

“People are definitely paying attention and they’re worried about the stock price,” Michael Solomon, who runs software engineers through his talented firm 10x Management, told The Post. “I think a lot of people have questions about whether Meta will ever get out of this – if this could be the beginning of the end for them.”

It is in your best interest to leave

When software engineers join companies like Meta, Google or Amazon, their compensation typically consists of a roughly 50/50 mix of cash and stock options, with entry-level employees getting more cash and more experienced workers, according to data from salary tracker levels. Technology.

In Meta, new employees are typically given a set number of restricted stock units based on the company’s average stock price around the time of their hiring. That means there can be big gains for employees who join before company stock rockets — but it also leaves them vulnerable to downturns.

For example, a Meta employee who earned $100,000 worth of restricted stock units around the company’s stock peak in September will now have nearly $57,000 left.

It also means that opportunists from other companies – like Microsoft, which is down 10.3% so far this year – could theoretically “buy the dip” by taking a job at a rickety company like Meta, and getting more stock options at a lower price.

In response to a disgruntled “Metamate” post on Blind, a Microsoft employee wrote, “The only people doing well are those who are currently moving companies right now. I’m doing exactly that and headed to Meta.”

Laura Martin, technology and media analyst at Needham & Company, said that while many tech workers may feel loyal to their companies, it makes sense for many to change jobs when the value of their options is available.

“If you’re not going to make any money on your stock options for three years, it’s in your best interest to leave,” Martin told The Post. “I accept the decision to leave your current company and go into a company and acquire shares at their current price.”

Much higher cash compensation

While Meta is the most extreme example, the entire tech sector has fallen this year after hitting record highs in 2021. The heavy Nasdaq Composite is down 12.3% so far in 2022, while Apple is down 9.9%, and Amazon is down 5.3 % and Google shares 5.7%.

With stock options dropping in value across the board, major tech companies now realize cash is king, according to Richard Kramer, technology analyst and founder of Arete Research.

“The big tech companies are simply paying much higher cash compensation because the Big Five have a combined $345 billion in net cash,” Kramer told The Post. “The battle to secure the best talent has not slowed down.”

Compensation often comes in the form of “cash retention incentives,” which are paid with the condition that employees stay with the company for a set number of years, according to Brian Krupp, head of human resources research at consultancy Gartner.

“As your stock price goes down, restricted stock units are less effective as a holding strategy,” Krupp told The Post.

And some engineers looking for cash instead of stock options have been able to negotiate huge payments from Meta in recent months, according to Solomon, the talent agent.

“They get better offers because Meta knows they have to make up,” Solomon said.

Meta did not respond to questions about the measures it is taking to retain and attract talent.

‘Share much more than dead’

While the likes of Meta and Amazon took a beating in 2022, some of the smaller tech names that thrived during the pandemic felt more pain as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates and investors backed away from tech stocks.

Shares of Netflix, which have rebounded during the closes, are down 33.9% this year. Video conferencing company Zoom has fallen from an all-time high of $310 in September to just $116.28. And Robinhood, the stock trading app that took advantage of it Boom Stock Meme In 2020 and 2021, it traded at $70 shortly after going public last summer, but has since fallen below $13.50.

The list goes on, with employees from PayPal, the e-commerce company Shopify, The beleaguered fitness company Peloton And electric-car makers Rivian are all worried about their company’s shares plummeting in recent months.

“I joined Rivian in January and lost more than 50%,” one Rivian employee wrote with the emoji “facepalm”.

Kramer said the change in lower-tier tech companies could help Meta and other big tech companies pounce on and hire talent, at least in part to offset any departures related to stock slumps.

“They are recruiting from hundreds of other enterprise software companies, etc., that have much less stock than Meta,” he said.

Kramer added that the biggest tech companies are not actively hunting each other’s employees because it would be a “recipe for wage inflation.”

However, that doesn’t stop workers from one big tech company from choosing to apply for jobs at another.