X executive jokes about poaching Meta staff, as Meta tries to lift morale with upgraded office perks

Meta Platforms is reportedly seeking to improve employee morale after layoffs and internal restructuring by upgrading office perks, including what employees would describe as day-to-day “comfort” and amenities.

According to a report carried by Yahoo Finance, an executive at X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, responded with a joke aimed at Meta. The post suggested X could attract engineers and implied that Meta’s office support had gaps that X was willing to fill.

The same report says X’s executive extended the premise into a tongue-in-cheek offer of “better snack budget” style benefits to employees who felt neglected. The framing is notable because it did not focus on compensation packages or formal recruiting campaigns. Instead, it leaned on the idea that small workplace improvements can influence how teams feel and whether they stay.

For Meta, the reported effort fits a broader pattern among large technology companies: after layoffs and reorganizations, management teams often look for ways to stabilize day-to-day morale and reduce friction for remaining staff. Office perks, internal communications, and changes to work environment are a visible and relatively fast tool compared with longer-term levers like hiring or new product launches.

The flare-up also underscores the intensifying competitive atmosphere between technology platforms for engineering talent. While X and Meta compete in the advertising and social media ecosystem, engineers and product managers can be valuable for both companies’ core systems, including recommendation engines, ad delivery infrastructure, and developer tooling.

Still, what is concrete in the reporting is limited. The Yahoo Finance item describes the tone and gist of the X executive’s message and Meta’s reported push toward improved office amenities, but it does not provide detailed financial figures, a formal HR program description, or a clear timeline for when Meta’s changes would take effect.

Meta did not publicly outline, in the information provided for this story, the specific components of its workplace changes, the budget size for perks, or any measurable outcomes it expects from these upgrades. Likewise, the X executive’s message is presented as humor rather than an official recruiting initiative, leaving open whether there will be follow-through beyond the online exchange.

Going forward, the most relevant indicates to watch are whether Meta’s reported changes expand beyond office-level amenities into broader retention actions such as role-based promotions, internal mobility, or changes to remote and hybrid policies. Also worth monitoring is whether the public back-and-forth between rival tech firms remains a one-off joke, or if it escalates into more direct, identifiable recruiting steps.