OFFICE PERKS

Meta Fires Employees For Using Meal Credits to Buy Toiletries

The company told fired employees the $25 Uber Eats credits could only be used for meals consumed at the office.

Meta has fired more than 20 employees in Los Angeles for buying toiletries instead of Sugarfish with their company meal credits, the Financial Times reported. The $1.5 trillion social media company offers employees free food at its Silicon Valley headquarters and provides daily $25 lunch and dinner credits to Uber Eats and Grubhub to those working at smaller offices. Employees in Los Angeles apparently used the credits to buy essentials such as toothpaste and laundry detergent ordered take-out even when they were working from home. About two dozen employees were fired last week for “abusing” the meal credit system, and others were reprimanded for occasional violations. One employee claimed on Blind, an anonymous messaging platform, that despite working nights and weekends, she’d been laid off for buying tea and toothpaste from Rite Aid pharmacy. “On days where I would not be eating in 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 user wrote. Meta declined to comment when contacted by the Times. On Thursday, the social media giant began restructuring teams across WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs, the business unit dedicated to virtual and augmented reality. The changes come after the company laid off about 21,000 people in 2022 and 2023.