Meta has fired 24 employees in Los Angeles after it emerged that they were misusing company-issued meal credits for personal household purchases. According to a report in Financial Times, the staffers had been using their $25 meal credits to buy things like toothpaste, acne pads and wine glasses.

Like most other big tech companies, Meta offers an extensive menu to its employees in office. While workers at bigger offices, like its Silicon Valley headquarters, have access to free food on campus, those working out of smaller Meta offices are offered Uber Eats or Grubhub credit. These credits are supposed to be used on food to be delivered to the office.

Staff at smaller Meta offices receive daily allowances of $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and $25 for dinner. These credits are issued in $25 increments.

However, two dozen employees were fired by Meta after the company found they were using meal credits to buy household items.

The tech giant fired only those employees who were found to have abused the food credit system for a long period of time. Some employees were using the credits to have food delivered to their homes, even though they were meant only for office use. Others were found pooling their money together.

One person familiar with the matter told FT that employees who used meal credits for personal use only on occasion were not fired. They were instead given a warning.

One fired employee shared her experience in a post on the app Blind, where verified professionals can share their workplace experiences anonymously.

The ex-Meta employee said they used their $25 meal credit on things like toothpaste from Rite Aid. The ex-employee said they were earning $400,000 (around Rs 3.3 crore) at Meta.

"On days where I would not be eating at the office, like if my husband was cooking or if I was grabbing dinner with friends, I figured I ought not to waste the dinner credit," they wrote on Blind.

When questioned by HR, they admitted to the oversight. However, they were later fired unexpectedly. "It was almost surreal that this was happening," the person wrote.

These firings are separate from layoffs that have recently occurred at several Meta-owned companies like WhatsApp and Threads.