The days of Facebook’s extravagant employee benefits may be numbered.
On Friday, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, informed staff that complementary services such as washing and dry cleaning will be reduced or eliminated. Tech businesses, which frequently provide lifestyle benefits in exchange for long hours in the office, are prepared to transition to a new hybrid work paradigm.
Many staff at Meta, for example, are slated to return to work on March 28th, while some may continue to work from home and others will visit the office less frequently.
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, said last year that the firm will be turning its attention to the metaverse. a yet-to-be-created online virtual environment that is fully immersive. Wide sections of the corporation were rebuilt around Zuckerberg’s vision for augmented– and virtual–reality goods and workers who refused Facebook to embrace the vision were forced out. According to multiple employees who saw the article announcing the change, several staff was quick to complain in the comment area beneath the post announcing the change.
Employees questioned if the corporation planned to pay them in new ways just minutes after the changes were revealed.
According to workers who viewed the thread, Meta’s chief technical officer, Andrew Bosworth, assertively defended some of the modifications and chafed at the apparent feeling of entitlement displayed in the remarks. Outgoing Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer also weighed in on the changes in the comments section.
According to two people who viewed the post, an employee on the company’s foodservice staff fought back even harder.
“I can honestly state that nobody worries about our culture while our peers are cramming three to ten to-go boxes full of steak to go home,” the employee added, denying claims made by others that the changes would harm Meta’s working atmosphere. “It was decided to attempt to stop some of the misuses while also getting rid of 6 million to-go boxes.” Many staff looked to be in agreement. The employee’s response was the most liked comment in the thread as of lunchtime Friday, with hundreds of colleagues voicing their support.
The discontinuation of the laundry and dry cleaning service for Meta workers in Menlo Park, California, marks the end of a well-known – though odd – benefit. According to a 2020 interview with a Facebook spokesman, the laundry service, which was run by a third party, offered free pickup and drop-off throughout campus and was designed “to make people’s life simpler.”
When asked for comment on the changes, one employee texted back, “Can’t chat, doing laundry.”
