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Facebook Extends Option for Employees to Work From Home Until Mid-2021

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook will give most of its workers the option to work from home until July 2021.

Facebook’s move to extend WFH through mid-2021 follows a similar announcement by Google last month. Previously, Facebook had told employees to expect to work from home, if their job functions permit, through the end of 2020. Facebook’s extension of its work from home policy was first reported by Business Insider.

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“Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021,” Facebook spokesperson Nneka Norville said in a statement. “In addition, we are giving employees an additional $1,000 for home office needs.”

Currently, Facebook plans to reopen offices in a restricted capacity in areas where government guidance allows for it, and where there has been virus mitigation for approximately two months. However, given the infection trends in the U.S. and Latin America, the social giant is not likely to reopen many of its offices before the end of the year.

According to Facebook, most of its employees have been working remotely since mid-March, when quarantine orders in the U.S. first went into effect. As of the end of June, the company had 52,554 employees.

In May, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said many of the social giant’s employees will be allowed to work from home permanently even after the coronavirus crisis ends. He projected that around 50% of the company’s workforce could be remote in the next 5-10 years.

That same month, Twitter became one of the first companies to announce that employees will be able to work from home permanently if they choose to, if their job duties allow it.

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