‘I figured I ought not to waste the dinner credit’: Meta laid off staffers for taking advantage of the company’s meal scheme

Meta has sacked a number of staff for abusing the company’s $25 meal scheme to order everything but lunch—including acne pads, toothbrushes and wine glasses. 

The sacking of almost 30 staff in the company’s Los Angeles office, first reported by the Financial Times, included high-paid engineers earning six-figure salaries. 

One user of the anonymous chat app Blind wrote that they used the credits for “non-food items, shared credits with people, or went above budget”. Other examples of the non-food items bought included toothpaste and other household items. “They were given a warning to stop which most of them did, but were still fired three months later even after stopping,” the user said.

Another user reportedly wrote: “On days where I would not be eating at the office, like if my husband was cooking or if I was grabbing dinner with friends, I figured I ought not to waste the dinner credit.”  According to the Financial Times, the worker confessed to the misuse of company credits after being investigated by human resources and was subsequently fired. 

“It was almost surreal that this was happening,” the person wrote.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, which is currently worth $1.5 trillion, offers staff free breakfast, lunch and dinner at its larger offices as a company perk. The social media giant’s Penn Station office in New York City, for example, features a cafeteria akin to an upscale food court. 

However, those in smaller offices without staff canteens are instead supplied with vouchers for delivery apps such as Grubhub to use whilst working at the office. However, some have been caught taking full advantage of the program, using the credits to have dinner delivered to their homes or pooling their funds with colleagues. Those who were let go were repeat offenders of misusing the vouchers, whilst others were reprimanded but not fired. 

Meta disclosed in a regulatory filing earlier this year that the median total annual compensation for its employees, excluding CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is $379,050. News of the firings follows Meta’s announcement on Thursday that it is cutting jobs across the company as part of several separate restructurings.

“Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said in a statement. “This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”

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