Is it possible to be hired in a company to do nothing? Will they pay you for it? The answer is yes and also receiving a succulent salary for such non-existent activity. This is the modus operandi of big tech, the largest companies in the technology sector worldwide, which has come to the fore after hearing the statements of a former Meta worker.
Target in the eye of sight
Meta, the parent company of Facebook that was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, has been in the news in recent hours after discovering the mode of action that it has carried out and that has exposed and questioned the rest of the big tech.
The fact has become known as a result of the statements made by the TikTok social network of a former worker of the American technology and social networking company, Madelyn Machado. The former worker stated that He started working for Meta in the fall of 2021 to fill a position of recruiter of new talent in exchange for an annual salary of 285 thousand dollars.
Although everything seems to be in order up to now, the news broke when the woman stated in her statements that Meta made it clear that they did not expect their new workers to recruit anyone during the first six months, however she received her large salary in full. This would not be an isolated case, and it is that other workers of the company they would have been performing these ghost positions for several years, getting paid and without hiring new staff.
Madelyn Machado, through her profile on TikTok, explained that during her working hours she dedicated her time to training, taking advantage of the fact that she was in a powerful technology company. However, “they have an incredible onboarding and training system, the best I’ve seen in any company,” said the woman.
This is how big tech works
Although the news has come focusing on Meta, this is not the only large technology company that works in this way. Many are the ones they hire staff for phantom jobs, workers who come to them to do nothing but who do receive a salary. But why do they do this?
The answer is clear and obvious: compete with other companies in the sector. In this way, they accumulate a large number of talents to prevent them from joining their greatest adversaries. The reality is that they can afford to pay workers to do nothing with the sole purpose of having a reserve of talent in their squad and that rivals do not have it.
Dartmouth’s Tuck Business School professor, Vijay Govindarajan, explains how these companies hire before they need it, in order to ensure they have great talent when they need it and, incidentally, prevent them from ending up with the competition.
Layoffs in big tech companies have revealed how they worked
In addition to the statements made by the former Meta worker, the situation seems to have lost control with the wave of layoffs being carried out by the world’s big tech companies. Companies like Meta itself, or Amazon and Microsoft among others, have laid off thousands of workers in recent months, including many of those who held these ghost positions.
In the last month, Meta has laid off 10,000 employees, stating that “this will be difficult and there is no way around it. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been a part of our success. They have dedicated themselves to our mission and I am personally grateful for all their efforts. We will support people the same way we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve.”
The arrival of new layoffs has exposed the reality behind the powerful technology companies. The layoffs put out of work powerful talents who were hired only to prevent the competition from taking their services.
