Meta Layoffs Are "Rank and Yank" 4.0
This has all happened before. The result? Zombie or "Cooked" companies will ultimately crumble.
From Business Insider:
"We were told by leadership that if we would be impacted by this, then we would already be expecting it, based on conversations our managers should have been having with us in our weekly one-on-ones," one former employee said. "But I was completely blindsided by this. My manager had been telling me that I have been doing great and did not provide any areas to be worked on. My manager even said that I would be fine and not impacted."
Likewise, another worker who received an "Exceeds Expectations" rating in their midyear review said they were surprised to be "dropped two ratings" to "Meets Most" without explanation.
"We are not even able to see the feedback that our manager wrote for us," they said.
Well, here’s a little inside information for you all reading this. All Meta is doing is remixing “Rank and Yank” and trying to get people all riled up over the fact many younger or inexperienced corporate folks thinks this is something new and outlandish.
Look, Gen X is usually ignored because we don’t exist but if people listened to us some more, they would realize most of what is happening happened before. If history is any indication here’s where this all could be headed.
Rank and Yank or Vitality Curve history…
Company: General Electric
CEO: Jack Welch
Year Rank and Yank instituted: 1985
Result?
GE became a zombie corporation
Company: Enron
CEO: Jeffrey Skilling
Year Rank and Yank instituted: 2000
Result?
Enron became a dead company that went bust
Company: Microsoft
CEO: Steve Ballmer
Year Rank and Yank instituted: 2006
Result?
Microsoft had a lost decade until Satya Nadella was appointed CEO in 2014.
Company: Meta
CEO: Mark Zuckerberg
Year Rank and Yank instituted: 2025
Result?
To be determined.
What we do know about “Rank and Yank” is that it contrasts with the management philosophies of W. Edwards Deming, who believed rank-and-yank puts success or failure of the organization on the shoulders of each individual worker. Rather than larger teams. Deming stressed the need to understand organizational performance as fundamentally a function of the corporate systems and processes created by management.
In other words, future systems should have workers equally ranking management. No, not some annual poll that nobody cares about. But real rankings that force out bad managers who don’t design organizational systems that benefit everyone. Not simply themselves.
So if this is in the corporate playbook since 1980 what is the employee response what is the employee playbook? What do they do to save themselves without getting a new job, or getting fired as a one off if they know they work in a rank and yank environment. If we know it’ll eventually tank the company why do we let it stay and let everyone deal with its eventual demise. How can workers fight back without quitting?