Cheapism / Anthony Quintano (CC BY) / Fritz Jorgensen/istockphoto
Mark Zuckerberg and his company, Meta (formerly known as Facebook), are always making news. Today, it’s because the company fired multiple employees for allegedly abusing an employee perk that granted them meal credits if they were working in the office late. Here’s what happened.
Meta fired a number of employees in the Los Angeles office because they were reportedly abusing a Grubhub meal perk. Instead of using meal stipends on food, they were using it on nonfood items like wine glasses and acne treatment, or using it for food delivery to somewhere other than the office, according to reports.
There were around two dozen employees that got canned, according to a source of Business Insider. The Meta source further explained that the fired employees had a repeated pattern of misusing the perk. Meta must have found out and decided to fire the employees, who were likely making 6-figure salaries.
Meta offers its employees free meals while they’re working, but at smaller offices where there’s no cafeteria, the company offers Grubhub meal credits instead.
At the Los Angeles office, where the fired employees work, employees were offered a $25 Grubhub credit for dinner if they were working past 6 p.m., according to a post on Blind, a forum for employees to communicate anonymously. The credit was intended to be used for a meal delivery to the office if someone was working late.
Some employees did receive a warning when Meta found out about the behavior. According to the anonymous fired Meta employee on Blind, they were told not to use the benefit on non-food items in early 2024. Some employees who were fired did not receive a warning, however, according to the post on Blind.
As always, there are two sides to every story. According to the post on Blind from a fired employee, it seemed like the norm to use the $25 Grubhub perk in this way. “I figured I ought not to waste the dinner credit, and would buy things from Rite Aid like toothpaste, tea, etc.,” they reported. “A coworker on my floor suggested this ‘perk’, and I had seen other people doing it, so I figured it must be okay.” That makes it sound like an honest mistake by this employee instead of knowingly taking advantage of a benefit.
They went on to report that they were told to stop using the perk for non-food items early in 2024, and they admitted their mistake and stopped. Still, an investigation was opened, and after months of not hearing anything, they were fired. The employee reported that they made a salary of $400,000.
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