Meta cites value of in-person work for return-to-work mandate

Facebook’s parent company Meta has made it compulsory for most of its workforce to return to the office for at least three times a week.
By: | September 7, 2023
Topics: Employee Experience | Hybrid Working

Meta, the parent company of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, saw their return to office mandate go into effect this week, with employees made to return to physical offices at least three days a week. This mandate, which was conveyed to Meta employees in June this year, is mandatory to any employee that is assigned to an office. Employees who are currently under the organisation’s remote working roster, however, will not be affected.

“We believe that distributed work will continue to be important in the future, particularly as our technology improves,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday in a statement. “In the near-term, our in-person focus is designed to support a strong, valuable experience for our people who have chosen to work from the office, and we’re being thoughtful and intentional about where we invest in remote work.”

While the organisation had at first extended its remote work policies to all full-time employees back in 2021, following other big organisations such as Amazon and Google’s parent organisation Alphabet, they have since reversed the course if employees happen to be located near physical offices. Employees in these organisations have been told to relocate to  their nearest physical office to get more work done or risk getting fired.

 “Our early analysis of performance data suggests that engineers who either joined Meta in-person and then transferred to remote or remained in-person performed better on average than people who joined remotely,” wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year when he hinted about the return to work mandate. “This analysis also shows that engineers earlier in their career perform better on average when they work in-person with teammates at least three days a week.”

Meta, the parent company of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, saw their return to office mandate go into effect this week, with employees made to return to physical offices at least three days a week. This mandate, which was conveyed to Meta employees in June this year, is mandatory to any employee that is assigned to an office. Employees who are currently under the organisation’s remote working roster, however, will not be affected.

“We believe that distributed work will continue to be important in the future, particularly as our technology improves,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday in a statement. “In the near-term, our in-person focus is designed to support a strong, valuable experience for our people who have chosen to work from the office, and we’re being thoughtful and intentional about where we invest in remote work.”

While the organisation had at first extended its remote work policies to all full-time employees back in 2021, following other big organisations such as Amazon and Google parent organisation Alphabet, they have since reversed the course if employees happen to be located near physical offices. Employees in these organisations have been told to relocate to  their nearest physical office to get more work done or risk getting fired.

READ MORE: Return to the office full time? Maybe, say employees

 “Our early analysis of performance data suggests that engineers who either joined Meta in-person and then transferred to remote or remained in-person performed better on average than people who joined remotely,” wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year when he hinted about the return to work mandate. “This analysis also shows that engineers earlier in their career perform better on average when they work in-person with teammates at least three days a week.”