As reported by Mashable, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is going to allow its employees to work remotely this year with thousands of them permanently working from home as the coronavirus pandemic continues to reshape the global economy.
On Thursday, May 21, Zuckerberg said in a live-streamed talk that his company will not be exclusively in remote mode, but he plans to be a remote-work friendly company. The social media giant has been creating tools and services for remote-working and collaboration such as the Workplace, the video-chatting app Portal, and the VR headset Oculus.
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2019.
"Moving to more remote work, I think, will give us the opportunity to advance some of the important future technology that we're working on," Zuckerberg said adding that the company builds things to help people communicate. It also gives people "a feeling of connection and presence" even at a distance.
The CEO also sees opportunities in the remote working workforce as its Workplace already has five million paid subscribers with a two million increase during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Zuckerberg also highlighted the "growing demand for VR-powered training and collaboration." This translates to dollars for the social media giant, which already has billions of virtual reality investments.
Mark Zuckerberg sees opportunities in remote working; Allows staff to permanently work at home
In an interview with The Verge, Zuckerberg said that it would eventually allow most of its employees to permanently work remotely. Also, Facebook will conduct most of its US recruitment online while it will begin taking in permanent remote work requests later this year.
Zuckerberg also said the move is rather "thoughtful and responsible," but he is also looking forward to having half of the company's 48,000 staff in 70 offices worldwide to permanently work remotely within a decade. This will make Facebook "the most forward-leaning company on remote work."
Last week, Twitter also announced it would give most of its employees a choice to work remotely while Google CEO Sundar Pichai told The Verge on Tuesday that the tech giant considers having more remote work flexibility and letting most of its employees work from until home the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Coinbase and Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke announced on Thursday that they would also begin a shift to remote work immediately. The latter is even considering a permanent work from the home set-up.
Zuckerberg told The Verge that the shift to remote working ends decades of Silicon Valley practice. When Facebook reopens some of its offices in July, it plans to reduce occupancy to just 25% with other safety requirements for its employees before coming into the office. Zuckerberg said the company is likely to keep most of its workers working remotely for much longer, although others are likely to prefer working at a company office.
"I do think I'll plan to spend more of my time remotely over time," the CEO said.
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