Meta dismissed over two dozen employees from its Los Angeles office for misusing company meal credits to purchase items such as laundry detergent, wine glasses, and acne treatment pads, according to a company source.
Many of the social media giant’s corporate buildings have elaborate dining services that give meals to staff as a reward. Meta’s two-year-old workplace near New York City’s Penn Station, for example, has an expensive food court-style cafeteria with multiple booths that are all free for employees.
However, for employees in smaller locations without food services, the company provides meal coupons — $20 for breakfast and $25 for lunch and dinner — so they can have food delivered to the office while on the job.
Meta Fires Employees For Spending Food Allowances On Personal Items Like Acne Pads And Wine Glasses
The meal vouchers are intended for employees to eat while working at the office, which can involve lengthy hours spread throughout multiple meals of the day, as is common in the computer industry.
According to the source, an internal inquiry discovered that several Los Angeles-based employees utilized meal monies to purchase items other than food or to have meals delivered to their homes.
Meta’s median total yearly salary for individual employees (excluding CEO Mark Zuckerberg) is $379,050, according to a regulatory filing released earlier this year.
The firings, which occurred last week, were originally reported by the Financial Times.
The firings came after Meta said on Thursday that it was laying off employees across the company as part of a number of unrelated 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 stated. “This includes relocating certain teams and assigning some individuals to alternative positions. When a role is terminated, we work diligently to locate other opportunities for impacted personnel.”
Meta declined to say how many staff were laid off.
Meta Fires Employees For Spending Food Allowances On Personal Items Like Acne Pads And Wine Glasses
Jane Manchun Wong, a well-known security researcher who predicted new social media features such as a Facebook resume feature and a tool on the platform formerly known as Twitter that allowed users to hide replies to their tweets, was among those laid off before being hired by Meta in June 2023 to work on the Instagram and Threads teams.
Last year, Meta laid off around 20,000 employees in successive rounds of cuts in an effort to reverse a year of revenue declines and stagnant user growth, which Zuckerberg dubbed the company’s “year of efficiency.” The company’s shares (META) have up roughly 80% since this time last year.
SOURCE | CNN
