Meta Takes Away Free Laundry for Staff, Delays Free Dinner

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• Meta told employees it’s taking away their free laundry perk, The New York Times reported.
• It’s also moving dinner in the cafeteria to a time when fewer staff can take advantage of it.
• Some employees voiced annoyance at the changes but a senior exec shot back, The Times reported.

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, is famous for its suite of unusual employee perks. As more employees prepare to return to the office, it appears to be slimming those benefits down.

The New York Times reported Friday that Meta announced to employees it was cutting their free on-site laundry service perk, citing seven Meta employees.

The company also told staff it will be pushing back dinnertime in the cafeteria from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. As Meta’s free shuttle service leaves its campus at 6 p.m., this means fewer employees will be able to take advantage of the company’s free dinner.

The changes come as some Meta employees prepare to return to the office on March 28.

“As we return to the office, we’ve adjusted on-site services and amenities to better reflect the needs of our hybrid workforce,” a Meta spokesperson told Insider.

“We believe people and teams will be increasingly distributed in the future, and we’re committed to building an experience that helps everyone be successful,” they added.

But The Times reports the change has upset some staff.

Meta employees told The Times that some staff complained about the changes on an internal company post. Several employees told The Times that senior executive Andrew Bosworth defended the changes on a thread underneath the post, and displayed irritation with what the paper described as a perceived sense of entitlement among the complaining employees.

Two employees said a member of Meta’s food service team also commented on the thread defending the change in dinner-time, saying employees sometimes exploit the offer of free food by loading up takeaway boxes.

“I can honestly say when our peers are cramming three to 10 to-go boxes full of steak to take them home, nobody cares about our culture,” the commenter said per The Times.

“A decision was made to try and curb some of the abuse while eliminating six million to-go boxes,” they added.

Two Meta employees told The Times the company has increased staff wellness stipends from $700 to $3,000 as it has wrangled with how to configure employee perks in its hybrid work model.