Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made an official announcement Thursday, Apr. 16. He officially said that all big public events of Facebook shall now be canceled until June 2021. Meanwhile, Facebook employees that are still under the setup of work-from-home will be extended until May this year. These changes were made in line with the Coronavirus health danger that harms all the offices and employees of the company around the globe.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg cancels ALL gatherings until next year
Facebook Big Events Canceled Until 2021; Employees Work-From-Home Extend Until May Says Zuckerberg
According to the report in Engadget, Zuckerberg recently posted on his official Facebook account that all of the huge public events scheduled for this year and next year are now all canceled due to Coronavirus. If these events are needed to be held, virtual meetings and gatherings might be an option, but these are not yet clarified by the company CEO.
Here's what's sure. All Facebook events that require more than 50 people shall now be officially canceled to maintain the proper social distancing that the government has implemented. He also postponed all business travels until June this year.
"Even beyond this next period, guidance from health experts is that it won't be advisable to have large groups of people get together for a while. Given this, we're canceling any large physical events we had planned with 50 or more people through June 2021," posted on his Facebook account. "Some of these we will hold as virtual events instead, and we'll 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."
Facebook already canceled a lot of prestigious and much-awaited grand events within the past months. First on the list was F8's developers' conference-- normally held in the first week of May. The event was suspended due to the spread of Coronavirus.
However, since the suspension will be extended until next year, it is now expected that F8 2021 will no longer happen either. Add on the list is the Oculus Connect scheduled in September and GDC 2020, wherein Facebook already announced no physical participation.
"When society does eventually start re-opening, it will have to open slowly in staggered waves to make sure that the people who are returning to work can do so safely and that we minimize the possibility of future outbreaks," Zuckerberg wrote in his post.
WFH extended for Facebook employees
Facebook Big Events Canceled Until 2021; Employees Work-From-Home Extend Until May Says Zuckerberg
Thankfully, Facebook also officially allows all its employees to do work-from-home until May 2020 to fulfill their tasks in the company.
As explained by Zuckerberg, "we will require the vast majority of our employees to work from home through at least the end of May to create a safer environment both for our employees doing critical jobs who must be in the office and for everyone else in our local communities."
A small number of employees, however, are required to be physically available in their offices. Zuckerberg clarified that whenever an employee felt unsafe to really go outside to work, the employee will always have the option to choose the WFH setup.
"I hope this helps contain the spread of COVID-19 so we can keep our communities safe and get back up and running again soon," added by him.
