Menlo Park, CA: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has reportedly terminated approximately 24 employees at its Los Angeles offices for misusing their $25 (£19) meal credits to purchase items like toothpaste, laundry detergent, and wine glasses.
The tech giant, valued at £1.2 trillion and also the owner of the messaging service WhatsApp, allegedly dismissed these workers last week following an investigation that revealed they had been abusing the system, including taking food home when not present in the office.
This included one unnamed worker on a $400,000 (£308,000) salary, who said they had used their meal credits to purchase household goods and groceries, such as toothpaste and tea.
The employee acknowledged the violation when questioned during a human resources investigation into the issue and was subsequently terminated.
Some employees were also discovered to have used the credits for other household products, such as acne pads. Those who had only occasionally violated the rules received reprimands but were allowed to retain their jobs.
Meta, which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, usually feeds staff for free from canteens at its larger offices, including its sprawling Silicon Valley headquarters.
However, employees at smaller locations receive daily credits to order food through delivery services like UberEats and Grubhub. Daily allowances include $20 (£15) for breakfast, $25 (£19) for lunch, and $25 (£19) for dinner.
In 2022, the company sparked a backlash among employees after it decided to postpone its daily free dinner service at its Silicon Valley campus by half an hour to 6:30 PM as part of broader budget cuts.
This change meant that fewer employees would be able to eat on campus if they managed to catch the last shuttle leaving the site at 6 PM. It also made it more challenging for staff to take home free food as leftovers.
Other major tech companies have similarly tightened their employee perks. Last year, Google began reducing fitness classes and the frequency of laptop replacements. The company also reportedly became stricter regarding office supplies, such as staplers and tape, requiring employees to borrow items from the reception desk instead.
Meta’s decision to terminate employees it accuses of abusing perks last week coincided with the launch of a new restructuring plan, which involves layoffs and relocations within its WhatsApp and Instagram divisions, as well as its augmented reality division, Reality Labs.
The company has just come out of significant job cuts, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg having ordered 21,000 redundancies in 2022 and 2023. As of the end of June this year, Meta employed approximately 70,799 staff members.
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