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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Meta has fired about two dozen staff in Los Angeles for using their $25 meal credits to buy household items including acne pads, wine glasses and laundry detergent.

The terminations took place last week, just days before the $1.5tn social media company separately began restructuring certain teams across WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs, its augmented and virtual reality arm, on Tuesday.

The revamp has included cutting some staff and relocating others, several people familiar with the decisions said, in a sign that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s recent efficiency drive is still under way.

Like most Big Tech companies, Meta offers free food to employees based out of its sprawling Silicon Valley headquarters as a perk. Staff based in smaller offices without a cafeteria are offered Uber Eats or Grubhub credits, for example, for food to be delivered to the office.

Staff are given daily allowances of $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and $25 for dinner, with meal credits issued in $25 increments.

Those who were fired were deemed to have abused the food credit system over a long period of time, said one person familiar with the matter. Some had been pooling their money together, they said, while others were getting meals sent home even though the credits are intended for the office.

Those who only violated the company rules on occasion were reprimanded but not terminated, the person added.

In one post on anonymous messaging platform Blind, seen by the Financial Times, one former Meta staffer wrote they had used $25 credits on items such as toothpaste and tea from the pharmacy Rite Aid, adding: “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.”

The person, who indicated they had a salary of about $400,000 at Meta and worked “nights [and] weekends”, wrote they had admitted to the oversight when human resources investigated the practice, before later being unexpectedly fired. “It was almost surreal that this was happening,” the person wrote.

Meta declined to comment on the firings.

However, the company said of the wider lay-offs: “Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy.”

It added: “This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”

Zuckerberg announced about 21,000 job cuts in two rounds of lay-offs in 2022 and 2023, dubbing the latter a “year of efficiency”.

He also cancelled low-priority projects in an attempt to boost sluggish growth and alleviate investor concern over his costly bet on the metaverse.

Wall Street has welcomed the cuts together with a renewed focus on artificial intelligence. The company’s shares are now trading around all-time highs of $577 each.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has adopted a ‘click to cancel’ rule, which aims to make it easier for people to end subscriptions.

It will force companies to make subscribing and cancelling subscriptions equally straightforward.

Businesses, including retailers and gyms, will also have to get consent from customers before renewing subscriptions or converting free trials into paid memberships.

The new rule is due to come into effect in around six months time.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” said FTC chair Lina Khan.

“The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”

Under the new rule, businesses will be banned from forcing customers to go though a chatbot or an agent to cancel subscriptions that were originally signed up to using an app or website

For memberships that customers signed up to in person, businesses will have to offer the option to terminate them by calling by phone or online.

Last year, the FTC took legal action against technology giant Amazon on a related issue.

The lawsuit accused the firm of tricking customers into signing up for Prime subscriptions that renewed automatically and made it difficult for people to cancel.

It also said Amazon’s website designs pushed customers into agreeing to enrol in Prime and have the subscription automatically renewed as they were making purchases.

Amazon has rejected the claims.

A SAVVY-STAY-AT-HOME-MOM has revealed how she made $300 in one week, with her fun fall side hustle.

Lisa has tried every side hustle under the sun, and last October, had great success delivering pumpkins to people’s doorsteps.

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“I was just selling pumpkins out of the back of my car, and delivering them to people’s porches”, she said.

The mom was inspired to start her seasonal side hustle, after her parents lovingly grew 20 pumpkins, and weren’t sure what to do with them.

She asked her followers if anyone would want her to deliver her a pumpkin, and was met with a resounding “yes”.

The thrifty mom then headed to Hobby Lobby, and picked up some cute ribbon to decorate her pumpkins with.

“I charged $15 a pumpkin, and I sold out!”, she said.

Lisa revealed that she had never heard of a pumpkin delivery before, so feels like she hit a gap in the market.

“People love to welcome hall, so I just tried it, and it was a hit”, she said.

The side hustle was especially successful with the elderly, who weren’t able to get out and about to decorate their porches themselves.

Lisa now dreams of turning her pumpkin business into a service, where she decorates people’s front porches for fall.

“These pumpkin deliveries were so fun for me, it was so fun to bring smiles to people’s faces”, she said.

She added that, although she got her pumpkins for free, there are some states in the US where you can buy pumpkins in bulk, for a cheap price.

Lisa’s video (@somo.mama)has likely left many people impressed, as it has racked up over 50,000 views on the video sharing platform.

TikTok users raced to the video’s comments section to share their thoughts.

Side hustles and tax implications

Extra income you make from side hustles may need to be reported to the IRS.

If you receive more than $600 in gross payouts from a selling platform like eBay, the site will issue you a Form 1099-K to use in your tax return.

Individuals should calculate their adjusted gross income, taxable earnings, and deductions for the year.

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Once they have that, they can use the 1040-ES form to calculate estimated taxes.

One person said: “You are awesome Ms Entrepreneur you did a wonderful thing helping the elderly!”

A second person said: “I would definitely pay for a pumpkin delivery!”

A third person said: “Amazing!! Especially for those who can’t get out much, they can experience all the fall feels!”

A fourth person added: “I absolutely love this idea.”

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Companies have “paused” any rise in their advertising spending in the UK ahead of the Budget, as they brace for the risk that higher personal taxes will sap consumers’ purchasing power, according to an industry trade body.

Marketing budgets have flatlined for the first time since the pandemic as executive confidence drops, the IPA, which represents media and advertising agencies, said on Thursday. The period between July and September was the first time in 14 quarters that total marketing budgets failed to grow, it found. 

“Negative hype surrounding the impending Budget has no doubt created choppy waters for UK companies and their marketers to navigate,” said IPA director-general Paul Bainsfair. 

“This quarter’s results reveal that companies aren’t cutting their marketing budgets; they are pressing pause until they know more about the government’s economic plans.”

The quarterly IPA Bellwether Report reveals UK companies’ marketing spend intentions and confidence levels, an economic indicator given companies tend to spend more on marketing when optimistic or when the economy is growing.

The third quarter findings show that the percentage of UK businesses increasing their marketing budgets — 21.6 per cent — was exactly the same as those cutting them. In the second quarter of the year, the difference between businesses raising and cutting budgets was 15.9 per cent.

The IPA Bellwether Report is based on responses from 300 UK-based companies about their marketing activities. The IPA represents about 270 agencies in the UK.

The IPA also said that it was “a significant shift in behaviour from the robust growth observed over the previous 13 quarters”. Attitudes towards their own companies’ and their industry’s prospects turned negative after about two years of optimism, its research found. 

The IPA said that better economic growth forecasts for 2024 were tempered by higher prices, the elevated cost of borrowing and prospects for an increase in personal taxation for many UK households.

Fergus McCallum, chief executive of Manchester-based advertising agency TBWAMCR, said that “having won a clear mandate to govern without fear of electoral challenge, the new government now finds themselves actively trying to be both the party for ‘working people’ and the party for business”.

He added: “We’re yet to see how they can manage that tricky balancing act but it’s already causing uncertainty as can be seen in the latest Bellwether Report — a set of numbers clearly suggesting a ‘let’s wait and see’ attitude from business.”

Within the total, there were some positive areas, with spending increasing on public relations, events and direct marketing. 

Richard Exon, founder of advertising agency Joint, said: “The advertising industry knows the pressure that falls on it from jittery brands. The real proof of the long-term impact will come in the next [report] but for the time being it’s more of a hesitation than a decline in spend.”