By Reed Albergotti
For much of corporate America, the millennial generation is a
puzzle. At Facebook Inc., it became the answer.
Born after 1980, millennials often are considered needy,
entitled, disrespectful and clinging to a fantasy that work should
be fun. They are also a majority of Facebook's 8,000 employees. A
Payscale study this month found the median age at Facebook was 28,
compared with 30 at Google Inc. and 31 at Apple Inc.
Rather than shrink from the stereotypes, Facebook embraced them
and crafted management techniques around them. Managers are told
performance reviews should be 80% "focused on strengths." Employees
aren't "entitled, " they have "an intense sense of ownership."
Employees are given unusual freedom to choose, and change,
assignments, even outside their areas of expertise. "Management" is
less a promotion than a parallel career track.
The regime was influenced by Marcus Buckingham, a British-born
researcher and management guru who urges people to build on their
strengths and work around their weaknesses. Managers are urged to
put employees in roles that cater to their strengths.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg brought Mr.
Buckingham to Facebook in 2008. He administered his StrengthsFinder
2.0 test to a group of top executives, including Ms. Sandberg and
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook embraced the philosophy, and Marcus Buckingham Co. now
trains all Facebook managers in the technique. Stuart Crabb,
Facebook's head of learning, previously worked with Mr.
Buckingham's company.
Even low-level employees are encouraged to question and
criticize managers. Shortly after Don Faul joined Facebook's
online-operations team from Google in 2008, he scheduled an 8 a.m.
meeting for staffers. Employees resisted, which rattled the former
Marines special-forces commander.
"I was walking on eggshells from minute one," Mr. Faul says.
Staffers ultimately went along when Mr. Faul said the early start
was necessary to accommodate employees in a soon-to-be-opened
office in Ireland.
Mr. Faul says Google is more structured, and being a "manager"
meant more. At Facebook, "You get zero credit for your title," he
said. "It's all about the quality of the work, the power of your
conviction and the ability to influence people."
Annika Steiber, a Silicon Valley researcher and adviser who
wrote a book about Google, said the companies differ in part
because Facebook is younger and smaller. "Google has come farther
in their organizational development," she said. Facebook "hasn't
really become that formalized or rigid in its management structure
yet," and that's a good thing, she said. A Google spokeswoman
declined to comment.
Facebook can be disorienting for some older employees, who feel
their past experience and accomplishments aren't valued.
"Experience can come with some wisdom," said one former
employee. There are often many ways to solve an engineering
problem, "and sometimes solving a problem in the most elegant way
comes with experience," the person said. "There were times we could
have avoided some pain."
Peter Yewell, who was in his mid-to-late 30s when he worked on
Facebook's sales team from 2006 to 2012, said the company chose not
to hire some job candidates his age or older--for good reason. "A
lot of people who were really talented just wouldn't work in that
environment" he said.
At other places he worked, including Yahoo Inc. and CBS Radio,
Mr. Yewell said managers told employees what to do. At Facebook,
"sometimes their role is to help you get the resources you need and
to move things out of your way," he says.
To be sure, Facebook doesn't give employees free rein.
Executives describe a balance between keeping young workers
productive and doing what's practical. Facebook staffers are rated
on a Bell curve relative to peers. That can jolt young employees
accustomed to being told they are high achievers. For some, an
average performance review compared with others was "the worst
thing that ever happened in their career," Mr. Faul said.
It is unclear how Facebook's management system will evolve as
Facebook's young employees age and work alongside even younger
colleagues.
"I don't think many people could make it at Facebook for more
than 10 years," says Karel Baloun, who was among the oldest
employees when, in his early 30s, he worked at Facebook in 2005 and
2006. Mr. Baloun, who wrote a book about the experience, says
working at Facebook is hectic and intense. "After seven or eight
years or 10 years, you're done, you're burned out, you get
replaced," he says.
Lori Goler, Facebook's vice president of people, said the
company's "focus is on ensuring that all of our employees work in
an inclusive and challenging environment that allows them to do
their best work at any life stage. We're proud of creating a
culture that can work well for anyone," she said.
Gretchen Spreitzer, a management professor at the University of
Michigan's Steven M. Ross School of Business, says Facebook's
approach reflects the changing demographics of the workplace.
"Employees want more power," she says. "They want jobs that are
more interesting."
At Facebook, that can mean frequent job changes. Paddy
Underwood, 28, joined Facebook in 2011 as a lawyer on the privacy
team. Two years later, Mr. Underwood decided he wanted to build
products instead of practice law.
He called his supervisor into a conference room and floated the
idea. Two weeks later, Mr. Underwood was named a product manager in
the Privacy and Trust group.
Because he loves the new assignment, Mr. Underwood says, "I'm
totally happy working as many hours as I need to."
Others are prompted to switch jobs. Mike Welsh joined Facebook
from PricewaterhouseCoopers as a risk-management accountant in
2011. Two months later, a Facebook manager saw Mr. Welsh explain
concepts to co-workers during a workshop and thought he'd make a
good teacher.
He asked Mr. Welsh to join the team that helps orient new
employees. "I pushed back and said, 'Are you crazy? I have no HR
and no learning-development experience and I have two accounting
degrees to prove it,' " Mr. Welsh said.
Now, Mr. Welsh is a "People Engineer." A millennial himself, Mr.
Welsh says Facebook is the first place he's worked where employees
are shifted into new roles based on their strengths, not the
company's needs.
Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School, says Facebook's approach helps
retain employees, at a time when tech talent is scarce. "Employers
haven't really been paying attention to being nice to employees
over the past few years--except maybe in Silicon Valley," he
says.
Many of Facebook's techniques have been tried elsewhere, and
Facebook executives admit to borrowing from consultants and
management gurus to craft their own culture. Ms. Sandberg, for
example, has said she was influenced by Netflix Corp., which
stresses creativity among employees and urges "B-level" performers
to leave.
But current and former employees say Facebook's culture in
unique, even in Silicon Valley. "It's the first Fortune 500 company
built by millennials," says Molly Graham, a former human resources
and product manager at Facebook.
Write to Reed Albergotti at reed.albergotti@wsj.com
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