Meta has cut back on office perks even as Mark Zuckerberg seeks to bring more workers back to the office, leading some employees to grumble, per NYT.
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Meta staff have "complained in internal chat rooms" that the tech company is cutting back on office perks even as Mark Zuckerberg seeks to bring more workers back into the office, according to a recent report from The New York Times.
The publication reported that "many" Meta employees lamented what they believed to be a decline in cafeteria options, and one worker commented on a lack of snacks and cereals at the offices. In January, The Silicon Valley Business Journal reported that Meta planned to lay off over 120 contracted cafeteria workers at its headquarters in San Francisco.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the employees' reported complaints when contacted by Insider.
The news comes as Meta continues to cut costs amid Zuckerberg's "year of efficiency." Last year, the company announced layoffs impacting over 11,000 workers and it said in March it plans to eliminate another 10,000 in the coming months.
Nine current and former employees told the Times that the pending layoffs and concerns about the future of the company had negatively impacted employee sentiment at the company. The publication said staffers had taken to making memes about the looming cuts.
"So many of the employees feel like they're in limbo right now," Erin Sumner, an employee who was laid off in November, told the Times. "They're saying it's 'Hunger Games' meets 'Lord of the Flies,' where everyone is trying to prove their worth to management."
Insider previously reported that the company was trimming its free-food budget. In 2022, the Times reported that the company was moving its free dinner service half an hour later to 6:30 p.m. and eliminating to-go containers in an effort to cut back on employees that would take the meal home.
The company also eliminated its free laundry and dry cleaning service last year, per the Times. Insider previously reported that the company cut $1,000 off its health and wellness benefits and ended a $200-a-month Lyft subsidy program.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg has been encouraging workers to come back to the office. Last month, the Meta CEO said in an all-hands meeting that while the company plans to "continue to support remote work," it will analyze performance data and potentially "update" the policy over the summer. During the company's earnings call earlier in the year, he pointed to an internal analysis that suggested early-career engineers who joined in person performed better than those working remotely.
Meta is far from the only company to cut back on office perks. Other tech companies like Google and Salesforce have also begun to trim amenities. In the past, the amenities have helped companies stay competitive, as well as encouraged people to spend more time in the office, but remote work and an uncertain economic environment have put a damper on office perks.
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