In wake of the Corona Virus pandemic, Facebook has decided to let most of its employees work from home all the way through the end of 2020. The company will open offices from July 6 only for the employees who need to come and have essential responsibilities. The company has already cancelled its physical events through June 2021.
Facebook said that it is still evaluating which employees will be called to work in the office. From what we gather, these could mostly be those working to maintain company’s massive data centers and other similar roles. Facebook was one of the first multinational companies to have encouraged social distancing measures and urging their employees to work from home since March.
“Facebook has taken the next step in its return to work philosophy. Today, we announced anyone who can do their work remotely can choose to do so through the end of the year”, said a spokesman. “As you can imagine this is an evolving situation as employees and their families make important decisions re: return to work”, he added.
Facebook also announced that it will continue to pay the hourly employees who may not be able to come to the office due to various reasons. Reportedly, the company has given $1000 bonuses to its staff for work-from-home expenses and childcare costs. It will start opening the offices gradually as lockdowns are lifted, a statement said.
“We will share more details on that soon. Similarly, we’re extending our policy of no business travel through at least June of this year as well”, said Mark Zukerberg, Founder & CEO of Facebook.
As physical conferences and other events are suspended till June next year, the company now wants few of these events to be organised virtually. Facebook reported a rather stable quarter in its earning reports last month, with comparatively a much lesser impacted balance sheet when compared with other businesses.
