Return to perk
LaCroix cans are back in the fridge at Meta as the tech giant tries to encourage staff to return to the office.
Companies around the world are battling to get their staff back to the office. If the stick doesn’t work, maybe carrots will — or rather a fridge full of Beach Plum LaCroix sparkling water.
Amid its push to pull workers back to the office, Meta is reviving some of the perks that have made Silicon Valley corporate campus the stuff of legend, according to Bloomberg. Complimentary dinner has been pulled forward by half an hour to 6 pm, for employee convenience. Beer is flowing again for Thursday happy hours, as is LaCroix — the cans reportedly began to run dry during the first nine months of Mark Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency”.
The return of perks says a lot about Meta’s comeback over the past year. When inflation rose, tech stocks fell — and few fell further than Meta. Its stock hit a low of USD90, a 77% drop from its pandemic peak. That, and staff spending most of their time working from home, led to a cut in benefits at HQ. Employees after a free dinner had to stay back and work for it. The complimentary pick-up and drop-off laundry and service was severed.
Things have not been so grim for Meta over the past year. The company’s two recent quarterly earnings have beaten Wall Street expectations, and its stock is back up above USD300. Yet turning a business around is one thing. Corralling tens of thousands of engineers, marketers and product designers back to work is evidently another.
