More than three years ago, Meta sent its employees to work from home amid the pandemic — now the company wants them back in the office.
The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp and has big goals related to the metaverse, has asked employees currently assigned to an office to start showing up in person again three days a week beginning September 5, CNN Business reported.
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Several other tech companies — including giants like Apple and Google — have already initiated in-office phase-ins. Amazon’s push for workers to return to the office three days a week, which began on May 1, has already sparked global protests, per Reuters.
In a March blog post, Meta CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed the company’s in-person engineers had performed better than their remote counterparts: “This requires further study, but our hypothesis is that it is still easier to build trust in person and that those relationships help us work more effectively.”
Meta workers who are designated as remote workers won’t be forced to return, per CNN, and a spokesperson for the company told the outlet that the new policy could still shift.
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“We’re committed to distributed work, and we’re confident people can make a meaningful impact both from the office and at home,” the spokesperson said. “We’re also committed to continuously refining our model to foster the collaboration, relationships and culture necessary for employees to do their best work.”