Meta has various 'block' lists for former employees — and it's sparking debate

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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. I'm Steve Russolillo, BI's chief news editor, filling in for Jamie Heller these next couple of weeks.

I've got Katie Notopoulos' impassioned argument about daylight-saving time on my mind. She says the Monday after it starts should be a federal holiday. Where do you stand? Let me know: today@businessinsider.com.

On the agenda today:

• The four biggest multistrategy firms' dominance has made it harder for under-the-radar funds to compete.
• Meet the PR maverick Bari Weiss and Sam Altman can't get enough of.
• Elon Musk is wielding a chainsaw at DOGE. Management experts call it 'comically clumsy.'
• Millennials have a terrifying new role: being full-time adults.

But first: Blocked.

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This week's dispatch

Meta has these lists

Getting rehired at Meta could be more challenging than you might think.

In a bombshell report this week, BI's Meta correspondent Pranav Dixit uncovered how Mark Zuckerberg's company maintains internal "block" lists that can prevent some former employees from being rehired.

Pranav has delivered scoop after scoop since joining BI a few months ago. I sat down with him this week to learn more about his latest exclusive and what it all means for Meta's future.

Q: What's the reaction been to your coverage of Meta's "block" lists?

A: We've had a wave of outreach since publishing. More former employees, both from Meta and other tech companies, have come forward to share similar experiences of being blocked from rehire. Their initial accounts suggest that this practice may be more widespread than initially thought. The story really took off when Laszlo Bock, Google's first HR head, shared it on LinkedIn. That sparked a robust debate.

Q: What's the most important thing you learned from your reporting?

A: I was struck by the remarkable lack of transparency in corporate hiring practices. While we have laws designed to prevent discrimination and retaliation, those protections only extend so far. There's a vast gray area where companies have near-complete discretion.

I was particularly surprised by how much influence middle managers seem to have in this process. In some cases, a simple form or classification from a single manager can profoundly impact someone's future employment prospects.

Q: Meta has undergone a pretty big transformation in the past few months. How does the story fit into what's next for the company?

A: This story captures a key tension in Meta's evolution. The company is still in what CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls the "Year of Efficiency," making aggressive cuts while simultaneously competing fiercely for AI talent. These "block" lists represent the collision of those two imperatives.

Hedge funds' growing divide

Smaller hedge funds used to outperform their larger rivals. Now, the tide has turned, and the Big Four — Millennium, Citadel, Point72, and Balyasny — have taken over.

BI heard from over a dozen fund founders, allocators, and industry experts about how difficult it's gotten for under-the-radar names to compete. The key for smaller firms is doing something bigger multistrats can't: recreate the same returns but with fewer people.

David faces four Goliaths.

The book of Lulu Cheng Meservey

Silicon Valley's highly sought-after comms guru won the hearts of startup founders with her edgy, direct, and nontraditional style. Bari Weiss loves her. Sam Altman's in her corner.

Less enchanted with the PR maverick are her peers. "She does not have a thriving business. What she has is a thriving Twitter following," one sniped. That doesn't change the fact Cheng Meservey's style is effective — even if she ruffles some feathers in the process.

PR's fiercest pitbull.

DOGE's report card

When Trump announced the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk's leadership, management and policy experts told BI they were cautiously optimistic about its efforts to cut governmental waste. But six weeks in, they've got serious concerns.

Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, Musk has challenged the limits of the law by dismantling USAID, and his engineers have infiltrated government IT systems. Those same experts now describe DOGE's tactics as "clumsy," "wrongheaded," and full of "political recklessness."

A case study in bad management.

Also read:

• We found a DOGE guy at NASA because his Google Calendar was public

Millennials are in charge now

The generation once known for being young is coming to terms with the fact that's no longer the case. Millennials are buying homes, starting families, and getting promoted at work. They're moving up the ladder in their personal and professional lives — and it's a bit daunting.

In addition to the exhaustion that comes with this new phase of life, millennials are losing the automatic cool factor bestowed by youth. Their jeans and side parts are out of style. But the good news is they're so wrapped up in the trappings of "adulting" that they probably don't have the time to care.

The new grown-ups.

This week's quote:

"It takes too long to performance-manage folks out."

— A Microsoft executive describing the tech giant's performance review process, which the company is currently reevaluating.

More of this week's top reads:

• 'Bond King' Bill Gross says he's scared to wake up and check the news each morning. He shares 4 stock picks with BI.
• I worked at Amazon during its early years. Jeff Bezos didn't seem to care about anything but his mission — but it was hard not to like him.
• Millennial moms want more kids — they just can't afford them.
• TV networks like Fox, NBC, and ABC finally figured out how to boost ratings — and it took them forever.
• Young Americans are finally buying homes. It may not pay off.
• A new DOGE staffer at the Department of Labor has helped run a fertility clinic and has pronatalist ties.
• This chart shows just how bad things have gotten for software engineers.
• We sent our reporter to Kyiv. Here's what he learned from a top Zelenskyy advisor just days after the disastrous Trump meeting.
• Shopify was cutting resources for diversity groups before it was trendy.
• Post-Roaring Kitty: Meet the new class of day-traders attracting swaths of followers online.

• Pulse check: 6 months of Brian Niccol's 'Back to Starbucks' plan.

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  The BI Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, fellow, in Chicago.