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> 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 t
by echoangle 2y ago
> 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...
- tyleo 2y agoSeems like a bad exchange for both the employee and the company. TBH I feel Meta could have just ended the program for these folks rather than flat out firing them.
- chachacharge 2y ago[dead]
- bananapub 2y agowhy? they fired them to send a message to the other employees.
- stickfigure 2y agoIf you value these employees so much that you pay them $400k/yr, be careful what message you want to send. My assumption is that this is an excuse to get rid of some employees they didn't want anyway.
- chii 2y ago> be careful what message you want to send. the message is that it didnt matter how much you're paid, you still are under our thumbs, and we can use any excuse to fire you.
- lazide 2y agoOr, clearly, they value the employee in a way they don’t want to pay them $400k. And the fool made it easy for them.
- FirmwareBurner 2y ago>If you value these employees so much that you pay them $400k/yr A company isn't paying you X amount of money because it "values you", they pay you that because of the market forces that force them to pay you that amount of money. They'd gladly pay you nothing and crack a whip on your back if they could get away with it. "Valuing you" is something your family will do, but rarely a company, especially a publicly traded one. >be careful what message you want to send. The message was exactly the one they wanted to send: "Everyone is expendable".
- tyleo 2y agoBecause training employees is expensive & may not be obvious how the $ could be used. In the employee side it is a small % of total comp so it doesn’t make sense for them either. It isn’t clear that they fired the employees to send a message. From the article, it doesn’t look like Meta told other employees, “we fired people who abused the free meal service,” so I don’t know how others would get the message. Instead it was posted on Blind and picked up by news which seems like a poor way to send a message from a PR perspective.
- jcgrillo 2y agoWhether or not they intended to send a message, if I work at the facebook the blaring loud message I just received is "do not under any circumstances try to expense anything, ever."
- dustyventure 2y agoAnd given that I don't work at Facebook the message to me is even clearer.
- jcgrillo 2y agoExactly. Although tbh that message has been clear for a long time.
- bananapub 2y ago> the blaring loud message I just received is "do not under any circumstances try to expense anything, ever." did you not read the article? the message was, quite reasonably, "don't take the fucking piss, if we give you food vouchers to buy your dinner, then use it for buying yourself dinner".
- jcgrillo 2y ago> did you not read the article? That's obviously not a serious question, so it doesn't deserve a response. > if we give you food vouchers to buy your dinner, then use it for buying yourself dinner I don't know whether there even is a "message", but if I worked for a company that just fired a bunch of people for discrepancies in really minor expense reports I would simply avoid submitting an expense report for something like a meal ever again. They're clearly looking for an excuse to fire people, and it's better to not make oneself a target.
- grugagag 2y agoFor accidentally bundling a toothpaste with some groceries? That seems excessive but again I don’t know the scale of it.
- echoangle 2y agoWhere did you see "accidentally"?
- consteval 2y agoIt's an assumption, but groceries are food and I'm assuming the person just threw in toothpaste as well. And, apparently, that one dollar worth of toothpaste was too far.
- echoangle 2y agoWell it was a credit replacing the food that’s normally available. If the stated purpose is credit to get a meal while working there, it’s fraud to buy other stuff with the credit. I can see why an employer would want to terminate you, they have to trust you and your work.
- consteval 2y agoRight, if you're looking at from a surface-level view. Using such a surface-level view means I could, instead, buy a meal and choose not to eat it. Because the credit is only for food. But that's worse, right? Okay, then the conclusion is that this basis doesn't work, and you need some leniency. Simply sticking to rules, especially if they're stupid, almost always backfires. We have to do cost analysis. Is it really worth it spending 100,000+ dollars to rehire and knowledge transfer over a few bucks? Do we really want to set the precedent that we are anal dictators? What affects does that have on other employees in our company? It's very tempting to be technically right, and then believe that means you can do whatever you want. I mean, you can, but as a company that can bite you. Being correct is not a hall pass from human perception. If you're an asshole, you will still be treated as such, regardless of how correct you may be. Naturally, I'm sure this move eroded much employer trust at Meta - almost all of it being in innocent employees. Collateral damage, but somehow, I doubt anybody sat down and did the cost analysis on if it's worth it.
- Etheryte 2y agoWhy would you not fire someone who is stealing from the company? Not seeing the logic here.
- xnickb 2y ago> stealing from the company Do you imply the person didn't eat that day or what? The company compensates employees food expenses. The employee's partner made the food and thus the food can't be expended, so they bought something else at the equivalent price to compensate for what would otherwise be covered by the company. I can't find a logic by which this is "stealing". Please clarify.
- Joker_vD 2y agoSomething along the lines of "they could've said the company that amount of money, instead they've spent it on themselves!"
- xnickb 2y agoI get my salary every month. I hope they don't find out or else I'll be fired for not saving the company that amount of money.
- HDThoreaun 2y agoMeta gave a voucher for lunch. If you don’t buy lunch you don’t get to use the voucher for whatever else you want, that is theft.
- consteval 2y agoRight, so then the most optimal outcome is always buying food even if you don't need it, and perhaps even throwing the food away immediately. If your total comes out 22.00, then go ahead and buy 6 ranch dips and bring it up to 25.00. Now, it's not stealing. Does this outcome feel more morally correct to you? I think, if you answer "no", then your logic on how this stealing works is faulty.
- oluminate 2y agoFTA: > Employees who had only occasionally broken the rules were reprimanded, but were able to keep their jobs, the newspaper reported. It sounds like the fired employee’s abuse was especially egregious and most Meta employees doing this got off with a warning.
- tyleo 2y agoThanks! I missed that part.
- kokada 2y agoI am almost sure that this employee in particular was not deemed especially important. If it was e.g.: an exec or some high level engineer, they would just be reprimand.
- keybrd-intrrpt 2y agoNo, screw that. Collective punishment is BAD Bad companies do this. They are so conflict-avoidant they would rather end useful programs instead of addressing the few bad-apples. Good on Meta.
- tyleo 2y agoWho is advocating for collective punishment?
- jvanderbot 2y agoWhy are people getting weird things like corporate food stamps when they are being paid 400,000 anyway?
- jffry 2y ago> Meta [...] usually feeds staff for free from canteens at its larger offices, including its sprawling Silicon Valley headquarters. But those at smaller sites are given daily credits to order food through delivery services such as UberEats and Grubhub. Daily allowances include $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and $25 for dinner. So probably a perk they decided was worth it or necessary for morale at some point
- Eumenes 2y ago> Daily allowances include $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and $25 for dinner. Dayum, I could make a weeks worth of meals with the daily allowance of each of these.
- JohnFen 2y agoMy thoughts exactly. $70/day to eat is mystifyingly generous. I don't spend $70/week.
- potato3732842 2y agoI suspect this is a result of acquisitions. They buy some startup, bring them all under Meta's HR umbrella with all the rules and perks that comes with. Since these recently acquired guys are running out of random offices in random places they just give them a stipend rather than force them to all relocate to a campus with dining. The $400k employee was probably a higher up (or key SME Meta felt they needed to put in golden handcuffs) at one of these acquired companies and was probably already on his or her way out.
- questionableans 2y agoAt Meta, $400k would be high E4 or low E5. That’s someone earlier in their career who probably feels fairly anonymous and is used to taking all the deals they can get to live cheaply, even if they don’t need to anymore.
- bookaway 2y agoIt's official. There are some perks that are better in relatively "shithole" countries than in Elysium. In that universe, they put allowance money on your food card that is mostly accepted by certain restaurants. But there are a few supermarkets that accept it as well and you're completely free to use the card "wherever it's accepted". This facebook example by contrast is hilarious bean counting partnering with moronic principles. And where is the quote from the person that bought toothpaste at the request of a homeless person? I'd like to be in the HR office for that conversation.
- TrackerFF 2y agoMy guess is that said person will land another $400k job in the industry.
- FirmwareBurner 2y agoUnless they had one of those corporate bullshit jobs like diversity, inclusivity and sensitivity consultant, survey administrator, human resources, corporate compliance officer, task-master, etc. If they had an engineering job that solves problems, they'll probably be OK.
- jader201 2y agoThat used to be much easier than it is nowadays.
- itronitron 2y agoMaybe they have a unique set of dietary restrictions.
- echoangle 2y agoA dietary restriction that makes them eat „toothpaste, laundry detergent and wine glasses“? Sure.