According to several employees who reviewed the post, many employees were quick to protest in the comments section below the post announcing the change. Just minutes after the changes were announced, employees asked if the company planned to compensate in new ways and if Meta had conducted an employee survey to assess how the changes would affect staff.
Meta executives trying to fight disinformation related to the war in Ukraine and facing a total ban on Facebook and Instagram in Russia seem to have given up on questions.
In a tone that several employees described as belligerent, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth strongly defended some of the changes and was annoyed by the perceived sense of entitlement shown in the comments, according to employees who saw the thread. Mike Schroepfer, outgoing CTO, also wrote in the comments in support of the changes.
According to two people who saw the post, another employee who worked in the company’s catering department fought back even more vigorously.
“I can honestly say that when our colleagues stuff three to ten boxes of takeaway steaks to take home, no one cares about our culture,” the employee said, dismissing others’ claims that the change would hurt Meta. workplace culture. “The decision was made to try to curb some of the abuse while removing six million takeaway boxes.”
It turned out that many employees agreed. As of Friday afternoon, the employee’s post was the most popular comment in the thread, with hundreds of employees showing support.
The shutdown of laundry and dry cleaning services for employees at the Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., completes the famous—albeit unusual—perk. According to a 2020 interview with a Facebook spokesperson, the laundry room, operated by a third party, had free pickup and drop-off on campus and was designed to “make people’s lives easier.”
One of the employees, when he received a call to comment on the changes, replied: “I can’t speak, I’m erasing.”