Meta Platforms Inc., (formerly facebook), tends to struggle to make headlines for the right reasons. Days after Former COO Sheryl Sandberg stepped down from her day-to-day duties, a Wall Street Journal report has said that the company has the 14-year veteran under internal review for personal use of corporate resources.
So what is Sandberg under review for? According to sources close to the situation, the review is exhaustive and goes back over several years. Sandberg is accused of utilizing Facebook employees in support of her foundation ‘Lean in’, which focuses on women in the workplace and in corporate leadership. Another aspect at the forefront of this investigation is Sandberg’s use of company employees in writing and promotion of her book “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy,” which entails her process of grieving and recovering from the sudden death of her husband. Also, Sandberg is being reviewed for using corporate resources to plan her wedding.
Sandberg could be asked to repay the company for the resources used, and may even be at the receiving end of US SEC’s intervention and action.
While this review has been underway since a few months, Sandberg did not quote it as a reason that motivated her to step down from her position. According to Sandberg, she was tired of being the scapegoat for the company’s critics, and also was not very enthusiastic about taking on Mark Zuckerberg’s new project, the Metaverse, as it was a multi-year project and did not utilize her abilities properly.
It is reports like these that tend to explain why the working class of the world exhibits less and less loyalty towards corporations. If a 14-year veteran of one of the world’s largest companies, responsible for unprecedented growth under her leadership, is not safe from the vendetta of the corporate machinery, it is hard to imagine who is. The issues for which Sandberg is under review at first glance donot seem to be worth a company like Meta’s time and resources. Making no assumptions at all, this action could be result of Sandberg leaving some important people in the organisation unhappy in her wake, or maybe just competition for the throne of COO.
That said, while perks like private jet usage are usually provided to top level executives in large corporations to keep the job lucrative for individuals (For 2021, Meta beared the expenses for security and private jet use for both Zuckerberg and Sandberg), use of company employees for personal matters without adequate disclosure is not usually a part of such perks.
Sandberg was hired for the role of COO in March 2008, and is credited as the individual who pioneered facebook’s journey to profitability. In 2008, the company was focused on building a website that people found attractive, hoping profits would follow. Sandberg is credited for shifting the focus to advertisement revenue model, bringing in massive profits and unimaginable influence to the platform. She has earlier faced criticism for her handling of Public Relations when facebook was accusedof being a vessel that facilitated Russian interference in the US’ 2016 presidential elections, which saw Donald J. Trump emerging victorius by a close electoral college majority.
