Facebook Moves to Let More Employees Work From Home Permanently The only catch? Facebook is indicating it'll lower the pay for employees who move out of a Silicon Valley, which has a high cost of living.
By Michael Kan
This story originally appeared on PCMag
Facebook says as many as 50 percent of the company's workforce could end up permanently working from home during the coming decade.
On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the prediction as Facebook is going to let more staffers work remotely on a permanent basis. "I think we're going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale, for sure," he said during a live stream.
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The news is another sign work-from-home policies may be here to stay for the internet industry, which continues to operate despite COVID-19. Both Twitter and now Shopify have also decided to let some employees work remotely on a permanent basis.
In Facebook's case, most of the company's 50,000 employees have already been working remotely since March. Initially, the company feared the pandemic would disrupt operations at the social network. But according to Zuckerberg, productivity remains up for more than half of the company's workers. At the same time, employees have been able to avoid long commutes to the office, freeing them up to spend more time on their personal lives or office projects.
Zuckerberg went on to say as many as 40 percent of Facebook's current employees are "extremely interested" or "somewhat interested" in working from home on a permanent basis, citing an internal survey. He also pointed out the shift to remote work would enable Facebook to better hold on to staff members who wish to move out of Silicon Valley.
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The company also sees benefits in hiring. "Certainly being able to recruit more broadly across the US and Canada to start is going to open up a lot of new talent that previously wouldn't consider moving to a big city," he added.
But for employees, there is a potential downside to the remote work. Facebook is indicating it'll lower the pay for staffers who move out of a city with a high cost of living. "As has been our policy for a number of years, your salary will be adjusted if you change location," Zuckerberg said during the live stream.
