Recently, Meta - the technology corporation that owns Facebook and Instagram - fired 24 employees at its Los Angeles office, because these people misused their $25 food allowance.

Meta is known for providing many perks to its employees, especially when it comes to food. While some of Meta’s larger offices have cafeterias that provide free meals to employees, many smaller offices will issue $20-25 meal vouchers for employees to order their own food to the office.

During an internal investigation, management discovered that some employees in the Los Angeles office had used their allowances to buy laundry detergent, acne patches, toothpaste… or to order food to be delivered. So Meta decided to lay them off as part of a separate restructuring.

Meta laid off more than 20,000 employees in 2023. In a filing with state regulators, the average annual salary of each employee working at Meta (excluding CEO Mark Zuckerberg) was $379,050.