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Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

theguardian.com

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Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#51

Post by Joker_vD »

xghedrr wrote: post #44
Joker_vD wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really an abuse? Oh no, he used meal credits to buy toothpaste and tea instead of food, so... what? It really irks me that this level of pettiness comes from the corporation that itself uses every single tax "optimization" scheme on earth (and also probably invented a couple). Apparently, quod licet Metae non licet famulo. This really is just a small monetary enhancement to one's wage, not a "we ration out your…

“Is it really an abuse? Oh no, he used meal credits to buy toothpaste and tea instead of food” Yes. This is called fraud. Even if you feel mega corp X is bad, defrauding mega corp X is… also bad.

In what way the mega corp X is defrauded here, exactly? The sibling comment explains that arguably the IRS can be considered defrauded in this case, but the mega corp itself?

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#52

Post by FirmwareBurner »

dgan wrote: post #45

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…

There's your mistake. Abusing the rules for personal gain is a privilege reserved for the rich and powerful. The commoners get the rule book thrown at them if they get caught stealing from their lords.

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#53

Post by e40 »

farceSpherule wrote: post #34

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.

This is the exact reason here.

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#54

Post by mckn1ght »

throwaway19972 wrote: post #27
Eumenes wrote: post #22

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.

[flagged]

They're speaking relatively. And if you don't know the other side of that coin, consider yourself lucky.

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#55

Post by treesknees »

mikeocool wrote: post #50
Joker_vD wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really an abuse? Oh no, he used meal credits to buy toothpaste and tea instead of food, so... what? It really irks me that this level of pettiness comes from the corporation that itself uses every single tax "optimization" scheme on earth (and also probably invented a couple). Apparently, quod licet Metae non licet famulo. This really is just a small monetary enhancement to one's wage, not a "we ration out your…

> This really is just a small monetary enhancement to one's wage The IRS doesn’t view it that way — if people were just given an extra $70 a day for expenses not related to their job, it would typically to be taxed as compensation. If they allowed this to happen unchecked and lots of people started doing it, the headline would be “Meta facilitates tax avoidance scheme for employees making $400k”

This is my feeling as well. I've gone through a lot of grief on expense reports at my company for things like not reporting the tax on a hotel room or tip on a meal receipt separately from everything else. It's not as simple as $25, at least from an accounting perspective.

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#57

Post by bathtub365 »

jcgrillo wrote: post #12
potato3732842 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that's better for morale and has a lower administrative overhead than the administrative overhead of having a cutoff or whatever.

It would be even less administrative overhead to just give everyone the $18.2k/yr in their regular paycheck.

The idea is to keep them in the office by giving them free food they’re only supposed to eat while they’re there, without paying overtime.

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#58

Post by bananapub »

jcgrillo wrote: post #24
tyleo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because 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 i…

Whether 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."

> 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".

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#59

Post by JohnFen »

Eumenes wrote: post #41
jffry wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

> 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.

My thoughts exactly. $70/day to eat is mystifyingly generous. I don't spend $70/week.

Re: Meta fires staff for 'using free meal vouchers to buy household goods'

#60

Post by JohnFen »

treesknees wrote: post #55
mikeocool wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This really is just a small monetary enhancement to one's wage The IRS doesn’t view it that way — if people were just given an extra $70 a day for expenses not related to their job, it would typically to be taxed as compensation. If they allowed this to happen unchecked and lots of people started doing it, the headline would be “Meta facilitates tax avoidance scheme for employees making $400k”

This is my feeling as well. I've gone through a lot of grief on expense reports at my company for things like not reporting the tax on a hotel room or tip on a meal receipt separately from everything else. It's not as simple as $25, at least from an accounting perspective.

The expense report minefield is real. It's why I developed the habit decades ago of not expensing anything unless it's actually expensive. It's too much hassle and risk.
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