Facebook Extends Work-From-Home Until 2021, But Still Leases New Manhattan Office Space
Facebook has extended its work-from-home policy for employees through July 2021, and has said they will give workers $1,000 for home office supplies.
A Facebook spokeperson dropped the news to Business Insider on Thursday.
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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,” spokesperson Nneka Norville said.
Facebook has just leased out the entirety of Manhattan’s Farley Building to use as its New York office space. The new offices could mean up to 10,000 workers in NYC once the pandemic isolation is over, up from the current 4,000.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the new office space will be a tech and engineering hub that will grow teams that previously were located in Facebook’s San Francisco and Menlo Park headquarters in California.
EARLIER: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that most Facebook employees can work from home wherever they want. But they should not expect to get Silicon Valley salary levels if they relocate to less-expensive areas.
Speaking at an internal employee town hall meeting livestreamed on Facebook, Zuckerberg said the company will take a “more measured approach to opening permanent remote work for existing employees.” Currently, most Facebook workers can opt to work from home through the end of the year, thanks to the pandemic.
Now, Zuckerberg envisions that over the next decade or more, about half of Facebook’s workers could be remote. But there’s a lot of “ifs,” “ands” and “buts” attached – although not butts in the seats.
If you qualify for remote work and move to cheaper areas, you will have to tell Facebook, and pay will be adjusted accordingly, Zuckerberg said. There will be “severe ramifications” for those discovered to be falsifying addresses.
“We’ll adjust salary to your location at that point,” said Zuckerberg, who said the adjustment would be necessary for taxes and accounting. “There’ll be severe ramifications for people who are not honest about this.” He added the system will work on the “honor code,” but will “put in some basic precautions” to make sure that the honor system is being honest. Those methods were not detailed.
Facebook has more than 40,000 employees. The company joined Twitter, which has also said its employees can work from home indefinitely.
The reactions so far online have been mixed:
Facebook: #WFH? Great! Let us know where home is cause we need to give your salary a hair cut. Will other tech firms follow suit?
Don't know….but I see pitchforks and torches being lit as we speak. https://t.co/0SJWzvODKt
— Philip Mai (@PhMai) May 21, 2020
"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg cut his salary to $1 http://t.co/m6ZAufTO0M" Things that are easy to do when you're worth $100 billion.
— Michael Beveridge (@mickyb273) April 1, 2014
#ambani earns billions through @Facebook share buy and yet cuts #employee #salary …. Wow….
— XandriethXs (@XandriethXs) April 30, 2020
Facebook allowing employees to work from home but those who move to areas with a lower cost of living will likely take a pay cut based on said geographic location.
Now this is interesting. Those who leave the Bay Area could see a significant drop in salary.
— Allan Bell (@AllanBell247) May 21, 2020
I'm not sticking up for the people. It's just never a good model to cut a salary for somebody and not expect blowback. Regardless of what that number is. Expect Facebook to lose some people.
— Stephen Adams ⚾️ (@StephenPAdams) May 21, 2020
I know this isn't uncommon in tech, but the optics are horrible from a guy worth >$70B. "If you qualify for remote work and move to cheaper areas, you will have to tell Facebook, and pay will be adjusted accordingly" https://t.co/9tohyoGGaw
— Bohn Abeille (@6x6pix) May 22, 2020
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