Employees in Meta's U.S. offices will begin returning to in-person work on March 28, a company spokesperson said. Its in-person employees are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as well as receive boosters if they're eligible.
Meta (formerly Facebook) employees can request to work remotely full time or extend their remote work period for an additional three to five months through the company's office deferral program. The company had previously planned for its employees to return to the office on Jan. 31.
“We’re focused on making sure our employees continue to have choices about where they work given the current COVID-19 landscape," Janelle Gale, VP of Human Resources at Meta, said in a statement. "We understand that the continued uncertainty makes this a difficult time to make decisions about where to work, so we’re giving more time to choose what works best for them.”
Meta's decision to push its in-person return comes as the omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads rapidly throughout the U.S. Meta follows other tech companies in pushing back timelines or removing them altogether. In early December Google told employees they could continue working from home depending on “local conditions” of COVID-19, rather than requiring in-person work for three days a week starting Jan. 10. Apple has stopped giving return-to-work dates as of mid-December.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE