Facebook parent to allow staff till June to return to office

Meta, the parent company of social media giant Facebook, has said it will reopen most of its offices in the United States by late January, however, employees in the US and Canada will be given three key options- to come to office, work remotely full-time or work from home till June, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, published on December 7, 2021.  

In June, Meta offered most of its employees the option to work remotely full-time or get permission to go to office for half the time. This was for roughly 60,000 employees to whom the remote-work eligibility was provided.   

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The announcement comes at a time when most companies are strategizing their work from home situation amid growing concerns over the new Omicron variant, and with the flu season underway during which Covid-19 cases have seen an uptick, in the January –April period over the past two years.  

Meta, according to media reports, said that its company is monitoring the spread of the variant and is ensuring a safe transition back to office.   

In recent months however, Meta’s California headquarters in Menlo Park had reopened to a limited capacity of 50%, including a few of its other offices as well.   

As of September 30, Facebook had about 68,100 full-time employees world-wide, with close to half of these employees based out of the San Francisco Bay Area.   

Meta also has strict rules that all employees entering the US will be needed to compulsorily be vaccinated against Covid-19. All employees entering US offices will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19.   

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Meta’s previous plan in August was to open offices at 50% capacity in September, and 100% by December, but the plan was delayed to January owing to the Delta variant.   

Coincidently, the United States identified its first case of Omicron in the state of California, where Facebook is based out of. The variant was recently labelled as a “variant of concern” by the world health organisation owing to its ability to re-infect vaccinated individuals.