Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Image: Facebook clone)
Facebook is allowing more employees to work from home. And chief tech chief Mark Zuckerberg is no exception to the rule. The executive plans to spend the next half year working on the home office model, according to a memo from The Wall Street Journal.
“I’ve found that working remotely has given me more space to think long-term and helped me spend more time with my family, which has made me happier and more productive at work,” Zuckerberg wrote to employees on Wednesday (9/6). Citing a Facebook spokesperson, US CNN said he will be working remotely for at least the next half year.
In a separate note on the same day, Facebook said employees at all levels will now be eligible to work remotely, including those in entry-level positions — as long as their assignments allow for outside work, The Journal reported.
The company told its roughly 60,000 employees that they would need permission to work from home — otherwise they would have to commute to the office at least 50% of the time.
Facebook indicated that most US offices will likely open at half capacity in September, before opening fully in October.
Big Tech announced its long-term policy for remote work in May 2020, when Zuckerberg said he expected half of its workforce to work entirely remotely in the next decade.
According to CNN, Facebook also said, in a Wednesday (9/6) memo sent to employees, that it will expand the eligibility of employees to work remotely abroad. The social media giant told employees that from next week, US workers can work remotely in Canada and workers in Europe or the Middle East can work in the UK.
There is a growing push for companies to allow employees to work from home on a permanent basis. Twitter, Salesforce and Ford said their employees will be able to work remotely after the pandemic, and some companies are canceling office rents, according to the site. interested in trade.
Coinbase is even scrapping its former headquarters in San Francisco, California, in favor of a remote decentralized model, while Spotify has said it will pay employees to work in co-working spaces.
But some companies are still reluctant to allow employees to work from home permanently. Google is opening new offices in Houston and Portland and has resisted becoming too far away, while Apple employees oppose a policy calling for them to return to the office three days a week.
A report from the UK’s National Statistics Office (ONS) found that working from home means more hours, fewer sick days and fewer rewards.
