Facebook employees are still loyal to Mark Zuckerberg and think he should remain CEO

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook, Dan Rose, vice president, partnerships at Facebook, and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, attend the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho.

• In a survey conducted by workplace chat app Blind, hundreds of Facebook employees said Mark Zuckerberg should keep his job as CEO.
• They also said the litany of scandals involving Zuckerberg had not devalued the company.
• Not everyone agrees, with a wider audience of tech employees saying the scandals had done damage to Facebook.
• Insiders at Facebook are generally loyal, with most of Zuckerberg's inner circle sticking around through a difficult 2018.

Most Facebook employees still want CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remain their leader, despite a year of scandal resulting in increased scrutiny on the business and potential regulation.

Blind, the anonymous workplace chat app popular with tech workers, surveyed more than 8,000 users on the question: "Should Zuckerberg remain CEO of Facebook?"

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Both non-Facebook and Facebook employees responded.

Of the 735 Facebook employees who responded, only 122 answered "No."

More than 600 Facebookers said Zuckerberg should stay in his job.

And more than half of the workers surveyed - including the non-Facebook workers - said Zuckerberg should keep his job.

Read more: Facebook is restructuring its augmented-reality glasses division as it inches closer to launch

Facebook employees were also loyal when it came to general criticism of Zuckerberg.

Blind asked almost 12,000 of its users if scandals involving the CEO had "devalued" Facebook. Of the 985 Facebook employees who responded, just 168 said "Yes", while 817 said "No."

But others in the wider industry disagreed. Almost 7,000 people said that scandals had devalued Facebook, versus around 5,000 saying they hadn't.

Blind ran its survey in January this year.

It follows a similar questionnaire last year, when the company found Facebook employees were remarkably loyal to Sheryl Sandberg. That's despite reports Sandberg was worried for her job after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, and that she had a hand in asking a controversial PR agency to investigate billionaire George Soros over his criticism of Facebook.

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Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, cofounders of Instagram.

Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said he won't leave Facebook, or even step down as chairman. Thanks to Facebook's share structure, Zuckerberg controls the majority of voting shares and acts as both CEO and chairman.

Activist shareholders have called for an end to this setup, and even Zuckerberg's one-time mentor, Roger McNamee, has lobbied for sweeping changes to Facebook's structure.

Insiders have, however, stayed loyal. Some high-profile departures include the various founders of Instagram and WhatsApp, and comms chief Elliot Schrage, but Zuckerberg's inner circle has largely stayed put.

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