As we all know about the unfortunate COVID-19 situation all around the world, several businesses have taken a critical hit right at the core of their business and are struggling to get back up and make profits during this ease from the pandemic. Nation-wide lockdowns have been lifted and yet, consumer behaviour has changed so much in such less time that businesses are finding it really hard to cope up.
Having said that, the largest technology companies of the world- Microsoft and Twitter have successfully made their decision to let employees work from home indefinitely, even after the pandemic ends.
Following their footsteps and as a wise decision to make, Facebook has also decided to do the same for its employees. As mentioned in a report by Business Insider, previously Facebook made an announcement suggesting that its employees will be able to work from offices and headquarters after June 2021 but recently, Vice President of Facebook Human Resources, Brynn Harrington mentioned in a statement to BBC that its employees are seriously thriving at home doing their jobs and would continue to do work remotely during and even after the COVID—19 pandemic is over.
However, this may not be true for everyone at Facebook. There are employees who are juggling between responsibilities, living in small apartments and wish to have a study environment to work efficiently and enhance their productivity. Facebook says that it is working to open its offices as early as possible, ensuring all safety measures and the health risks involved.
Well, in the COVID-19 situation, vaccination drives are thriving throughout the world and Facebook is certainly making its contribution to help as many people as possible in vaccinations. As far as the reopening of offices is concerned, the social media conglomerate has announced to reopen its Silicon Valley facility with a maximum of 10% capacity, as reported by Business Insider and confirmed by Bloomberg. Adherence to all precautionary measures is to be taken that include social distancing, face masks, sanitisers and COVID-19 tests every week.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has also publicly stated that 50% of its workforce will be working remotely from home within the next 10 years.
The company has noticed that people who are comfortable sitting at home with their families. Happy people are the most productive and work from home culture also gives employees who are parents, more time to spend with their children by cutting commute time.
The decision has been taken, Facebook employees can now work remotely, forever.
Key Points from Facebook regarding Remote Work/Work from Home for employees:
- We had announced in May 2020, that we’d be enabling full-time remote work for employees. You can find more here in a post from May 2020, and this was widely reported at the time.
- To add clarity…the option to ‘continue working from home after the pandemic’ is enabled by the option for ‘long-term remote work’ – i.e. if someone would like to continue working from home after the pandemic, it would then be considered full-time remote work, and they would need to be in an eligible role/apply for it.
- For additional clarity on returning to offices and dates
- We have given employees the option to work from home until July 2, 2021, and following that date, any employee who is not a full-time remote worker may continue working from home until one month after their office reopens at 50% capacity.
- The latest data suggests the earliest we’ll likely be able to open our largest sites at 50% capacity will be after September 7, 2021.
- As long as health data continues to improve and with the vaccine expected to be more widely available in the US, beginning in May and on a rolling basis, we plan to open select Bay Area offices at up to 10% maximum seated capacity.
- The health and safety of our employees and neighbors in the community is our top priority and we’re taking a measured approach to reopening offices. As we return to the office, we have a number of safety protocols in place including physical distancing and masks required at all times when in an office, and where possible, weekly testing requirements for anyone working on site. We will continue to work with experts to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone’s health and safety
