Return-to-Office at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta: T-Shirts, Laundry and La Croix

After Mark Zuckerberg declared this Meta's "year of efficiency," and laid off tens of thousands of people from the company, it seems the tech giant is luring most of its remaining workers back to the office with a carrot-and-stick approach.

The stick: Return to the office at least three days a week, or experience unspecified consequences. The carrot: The old office perks are back, too, including food, happy hours and merch.

Bloomberg reported that Meta employee morale has improved as the company has hired back some of the laid-off workers and made in-person office work a little easier to bear.

Aside from free t-shirts, employees have access to on-site laundry and haircuts. Thirsty Thursdays are also back, and the food and beverage situation has vastly improved (although one Meta employee told Bloomberg it's not as good as before the pandemic). Other employees speaking to Bloomberg said that once-bare fridges are now fully stocked with La Croix sparkling water. 

A Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg that the perks aren’t new so much as enhanced. “Dinner, happy hour and company swag never really went away, merely adjusted given the pandemic and budgets,” they said. 

The good cheer reflects the company's improved financial position: during a July earnings call, Zuckerberg said the company had "a good quarter" due to a bump in ad revenue. Meta’s stock has performed well over the past year, too, more than doubling in value to trade at over $300 per share as of Tuesday morning.