Facebook and Instagram parent Meta has reportedly fired about two dozen staffers in Los Angeles for abusing a $25 daily meal perk to stock up on household supplies like wine glasses, acne pads and laundry detergent.
The fired workers were found to have misused the meal credit program – intended for workers who stay at the office late or are based in offices that lack a kitchen – over a long period of time, the Financial Times reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The firings were part of a broader restructuring at Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant that sparked job cuts across multiple business segments on Tuesday, including its Instagram, WhatsApp and Reality Labs teams.
Employees axed over meal program shenanigans were reportedly informed last week.
Some Meta staffers grumbled about the clampdown on Blind, an app verifies that its users work at the companies they claim but allows them to remain anonymous.
“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,” one ex-Meta worker wrote in a post seen by the FT.
The worker, who said they had a $400,000 salary and had occasionally used the $25 credit to buy items from Rite Aid, described the situation as “almost surreal.”
In some cases, workers misused the perk by having meals delivered to their houses rather than to the office or by pooling their credits together.
Other employees were given warnings for violating the policy but weren’t fired, the report said.
Another Meta employee, however, claimed on Blind that the fired workers were “given a warning to stop which most of them did, but were still fired 3 months later even after stopping.”
“Seems like warnings don’t mean anything and more people will be fired over the next few months. I understand policies can be stringent, but this seems egregious,” the employee wrote.
Meta did not comment specifically on the firings.
“Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” the company 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,” the company added.
The exact number of employees impacted by the restructuring was not immediately clear.
Zuckerberg had previously slashed more than 21,000 jobs last year in what he dubbed a “year of efficiency” at the Big Tech giant.
The cost-cutting moves occurred as Meta shifted more resources toward artificial intelligence.
