> That included one unnamed worker on a $400,000 salary, who said they had used their meal credits to buy household goods and groceries such as toothpaste and tea.

I bet that was really worth it...

I had to watch a video about this issue 20 years ago. If the company can't trust you with small amounts of money, they can't trust you at all. I've seen people forfeit bonuses over smaller infractions- the lesson is don't steal small amounts of money

Conditional money is goofy and essentially asking for problems.

Either give someone $20 or don’t. Then you don’t have to have an entire investigative department devoted to auditing whether an item has caloric value or not.

I still remember.As clear as day: I bought raw eggs and raw meat with my French equivalent "tickets resto", as well as a couple of beers. I am a horrible person. Granted, I was only being paid 2300€/month at that time. Poor international companies providing me generous perks, and I.. I occupy the position of someone else who would be strictly abiding the rules. I should have been fired on the spot. If only the world were run by law abiding individuals like the ones running those generous companies

Meal money in France is credited (either as vouchers or as a separate credit card-like card) that can only be spent either in restaurants, or to spend in supermarkets. Supermarkets are only allowed to sell a limited list of goods that qualify as meal on that credit, the system is directly integrated in the cash register software.

There is quite a lot of missing context in this story.

Meta provides a $25 meal delivery credit for employees in offices that do not serve catered dinner. It is valid only within a specific time window on weekdays, and meals can only be delivered to the office.

The offense here is that employees were ordering items other than food, or not actually working at the time of delivery. Like they would order food to the office, go in to grab it, and then leave.

Meta's behavior seems quite justified here.

I found this behaviour at Google fascinating:

> The company had also reportedly become more stringent on office supplies including staplers and tape, with staff having to borrow items from their reception desks instead.

I’m sure Google can compute the cost of a $400,000/- a year employee traipsing down the hallway to borrow a stapler. Pretty sure the stapler will pay for itself in a few trips.

I knew someone who would take company products to lenient stores and "return" them for a refund >:( They worked in PR and had access to samples unquestioned

We had this at my company (finance) during covid they had a generous Uber eats offer for food after work hours. Some employees (particularly new grads) realised they could pick the food up as they left or collect the food at the door as they left the office or redirect the order. remember at the time thinking this is stealing pennies when you’re paid incredibly well.

Well it wasn’t pennies. HR filtered to find those who claimed thousands and then managed to prove many of them were ordering on days they hadn’t even swiped into the office. Anyway, when HR finally did look into it dozens of people got fired from their $n00,000 job for stealing $5,000 worth of food. Good to fire them, you don’t want to hire people that stupid.

Zuck betted on metaverse being a thing and lost billions on it, that money must come from somewhere

My startup just fired a remote employee who was using our coworking space stipend to pay for her friends art studio rent. When asked for receipts, they got super defensive and the rest is history. For every person taking advantage of their companies generous perks, there is someone hard working and ethical willing to do that job. FAFO.

Aren't they just finding a good reason to save 400K/year * how many they fire.

Description: Facebook and Instagram owner reportedly dismisses about 24 workers for abusing $25 meal credit system

It's called forced attrition folks. Same with "Returning to Office." They need to shed workers while avoiding the payment of severance.

"Abuse" of perks and expense reports are the first place you look. It's an easy, terminable offense.

It's $25... why not just suspend the program? Seems mostly harmless considering they're getting paid $400k a year...

Fire a couple dozen people on 400k without severance and you've saved 10m a year. Easy money.