Meta has laid off around two dozen employees in Los Angeles after they used their $25 meal vouchers to purchase household items such as acne pads, wine glasses, and detergent. The layoffs occurred last week, just before the $1.5 trillion social media company began restructuring teams at WhatsApp, Instagram, and Reality Labs on Tuesday.

Internal sources report that the recent measures include both staff reductions and transfers—a sign that CEO Mark Zuckerberg's efficiency initiatives are still in full swing. Already in 2022 and 2023, Zuckerberg had cut a total of around 21,000 jobs and referred to the year 2023 as the "Year of Efficiency.

Meta offers free meals to its employees at its Silicon Valley headquarters. In smaller offices without a cafeteria, employees receive meal vouchers for delivery services like Uber Eats or Grubhub to order meals to the office. The daily allowances are 20 USD for breakfast and 25 USD each for lunch and dinner, issued in 25 USD increments.

The dismissed employees are said to have abused the voucher system over an extended period. Some are said to have pooled their credits, while others allegedly had food delivered to their homes, although the vouchers were intended for consumption in the office. Employees who only occasionally violated the rules were warned but not dismissed.

A former Meta employee reported on the anonymous platform Blind that he used the $25 vouchers for items like toothpaste and tea at the drugstore Rite Aid. With a salary of around $400,000 and working hours at night and on weekends, he assumed he could use unused meal credits in other ways. However, after an investigation by the HR department, he was unexpectedly terminated.

Meta declined to comment on the individual layoffs, but stated regarding the restructurings: "Today, some teams at Meta are making changes to ensure that resources align with our long-term strategic goals and location strategies." The company further added: "This includes moving some teams to other locations and transferring some employees to different roles. In situations where a position is eliminated, we strive to find other opportunities for the impacted employees.

To stimulate growth and dispel investors' concerns about its costly investments in the metaverse, Zuckerberg has also discontinued low-priority projects. The cuts and renewed focus on artificial intelligence have been positively received by Wall Street. The company's stock is now trading at around $577 per share, near the all-time high.