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Meta has dismissed approximately 24 employees from its Los Angeles office for misappropriating meal credits intended for workplace dining. The technology giant, valued at £1.2 trillion, took action following an internal investigation that revealed systematic abuse of its daily meal allowance program.
The investigation uncovered that employees had been using their allocated credits – $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch, and $25 for dinner – to purchase non-food items including household goods through delivery services like UberEats and Grubhub. Among those terminated was a senior employee earning $400,000 annually, who admitted to purchasing personal items such as toothpaste and tea from Rite Aid using company meal credits.
"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," the former employee wrote on the anonymous platform Blind, describing their subsequent termination as "almost surreal."
The incident occurs amid broader changes in Silicon Valley's renowned corporate perks. While Meta's larger offices, including its Menlo Park headquarters, continue to operate free cafeterias, smaller locations rely on the credit system for employee meals. This follows a 2022 controversy when Meta pushed back its dinner service time to 6:30 PM, effectively limiting employees' ability to take advantage of the free meal program.
The terminations coincide with Meta's ongoing restructuring efforts, which have included significant workforce reductions under CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "Year of Efficiency" initiative. The company has already eliminated 21,000 positions since 2022, bringing its total workforce to 70,799 as of June 2024.
According to sources familiar with the matter, employees who only occasionally misused the meal credits received warnings rather than termination. The investigation revealed some staff had been pooling credits and ordering food to their homes, practices explicitly against company policy.
"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," the former employee wrote on the anonymous platform Blind, describing their subsequent termination as "almost surreal."
The incident occurs amid broader changes in Silicon Valley's renowned corporate perks. While Meta's larger offices, including its Menlo Park headquarters, continue to operate free cafeterias, smaller locations rely on the credit system for employee meals. This follows a 2022 controversy when Meta pushed back its dinner service time to 6:30 PM, effectively limiting employees' ability to take advantage of the free meal program.
The terminations coincide with Meta's ongoing restructuring efforts, which have included significant workforce reductions under CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "Year of Efficiency" initiative. The company has already eliminated 21,000 positions since 2022, bringing its total workforce to 70,799 as of June 2024.
According to sources familiar with the matter, employees who only occasionally misused the meal credits received warnings rather than termination. The investigation revealed some staff had been pooling credits and ordering food to their homes, practices explicitly against company policy.
