Meta Sacks Workers For Using Office Free Meal Vouchers To Buy Household Items
The affected staff were accused of using their $25 (£19) meal credits to buy items such as toothpaste, laundry detergent, acne pad and wine glasses, The Guardian reports.
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and also WhatsApp Meta, has allegedly fired about 24 staff members at its Los Angeles offices.
The affected staff were accused of using their $25 (£19) meal credits to buy items such as toothpaste, laundry detergent, acne pad and wine glasses, The Guardian reports.
It was gathered that the dismissal by the tech firm followed an investigation that discovered that the staff had been abusing the system, including sending food home when they were not in the office.
It was noted that one of the affected persons was an unnamed worker on a $400,000 salary.
On the anonymous messaging platform Blind, they 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.”
The breach was discovered as part of human resources procedure
“It was almost surreal that this was happening,” one of the workers wrote after admitting to the breach, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story.
According to reports, employees who occasionally bent the rules received warnings but retained their positions.
Free meals have long been a benefit for employees of major tech firms like Meta, founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
Typically, staff at larger offices, including Meta’s Silicon Valley headquarters, enjoy complimentary meals from on-site canteens. Employees at smaller locations receive daily food credits, redeemable through delivery services like UberEats and Grubhub, with allowances of $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and $25 for dinner.
