Mark Zuckerberg
James Martin
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said Thursday that some employees will have the opportunity to work permanently from home the novel corona virus has triggered a shift to remote work for some of the world’s largest technology companies.
In an internal town hall meeting for employees that was broadcast live on Facebook, Zuckerberg said the company would aggressively open the hiring of employees remotely, coupled with a “more moderate approach to opening permanent remote work for existing employees”.
In the next five to ten years, about half of Facebook employees could be away, Zuckerberg said, adding that there are “many nuances” of how the process would work. Employees are entitled to permanent long-distance work if they have experience and have recently performed well. You also need to be part of a team that supports remote work and gets approval from a group leader, said Zuckerberg.
The company will also only open remote hires for experienced employees, particularly engineers, starting in the U.S. and Canada, said Zuckerberg. The company will not hire remote employees for new graduates and less experienced employees.
“I just think that if we do it thoughtfully and methodically, instead of just opening the doors to everyone, it will help us to strengthen really important parts of our corporate culture,” he said.
Zuckerberg’s livestream crashed during the course of the presentation and showed a pattern similar to a television test card at around 11 a.m. Technical difficulties are a disadvantage when working from home. The livestream has yet to be restored, but a Facebook spokesman tweeted that Zuckerberg was nearing completion and the full video would be released.
Zuckerberg’s comments come like other technology companies, including Twitter, Square and Shopify unveil permanent work-from-home guidelines. It gives an insight into how other large technology companies could change employee working conditions.
Facebook had previously said that those who can do their work remotely can do so by the end of 2020. The company does not plan to reopen most of its offices before July 6, at the earliest, and requires workers to check their temperature. wear face masks and practice social distancing. FacebookBloomberg, which has offices around the world and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, will limit job capacity to 25%, Bloomberg reported this week.
Some Facebook employees cannot work remotely. This includes certain engineers and content reviewers who review anti-terrorism or suicide and self-harm prevention content.
By March, Facebook had more than 48,200 employees worldwide. Zuckerberg said in April during the company’s quarterly profit call Facebook plans to employ 10,000 people in product and engineering functions this year.
