‘I’ve never heard of anything like this’: Former Google HR chief reacts to Meta’s ‘block’ lists

• BI revealed Meta ‘block’ lists that can prevent some former employees from being rehired.
• Google’s former HR chief wrote that he’s never seen a large scale, systematic approach like this.
• While such lists aren’t illegal, they are unusual, other employment and HR experts told BI.

Former Google HR chief Laszlo Bock weighed in this week on Business Insider’s report about internal Meta “block” lists that can prevent some former employees from being rehired.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Bock wrote on LinkedIn, referring to BI’s story. “I’ve sometimes heard an exec say, ‘don’t ever re-hire this person’, but never seen a large scale, systematic approach like this. Have folks seen this elsewhere?”

BI’s reporting revealed that Meta maintains internal systems to track which former employees are ineligible for rehire, including some with strong performance records who were laid off during the company’s 2022 workforce reductions. While such lists aren’t illegal, they are unusual, employment and human-resource experts told BI.

Several HR and marketing professionals responded to Bock’s post.

Leah Hardy, a former marketing exec at Meta, commented that the company’s approach is “related to company risk,” and explained that the concerns center around rehired employees potentially returning with “malicious intent” following layoffs.

Hardy added that “Meta already struggles with corporate espionage and leaks so this risk mitigation is from lawyers.”

Karen Liska, an attorney and HR executive, wrote that some companies use such lists as “a risk mitigation strategy” but noted potential issues with their implementation.

“Like any other tool in a large org that is meant to help keep systems functioning, it can be used for protective purposes or other legitimate business reasons, or it can be used improperly as part of retaliation or to maintain discriminatory practices,” Liska wrote.

She questioned whether these lists should have expiration dates “to give people a chance to learn and grow or for the security/revenge risk to cool off.”

Simon Ives, an HR executive, commented that such practices are “so common that all the major HR tech platforms support flagging employees as do not re-hire,” though he acknowledged these features are “often poorly implemented.”

Another HR professional, Eric J D, who said he works at Nike, noted that “unpublished and off-the-record lists” are “more common than you’d think,” typically initiated by managers during the exit process by marking employees as “non eligible for re-hire” in HR information systems.

Have you been told that you’re ineligible to be rehired by a former employer? I’d like to hear from you.

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