Returning to office gets fuzzier at Meta, Lyft

There’s no need for Meta or Lyft employees to rush back to the office, it turns out.

Both companies announced Tuesday that they’ll still fully reopen their offices in January (Meta) and February (Lyft), but will allow employees to work from home for longer if they choose.

Leaders at Meta, the new name of Facebook’s parent company, ”recognize that some aren’t quite ready to come back” on Jan. 31, Vice President of Human Resources Janelle Gale said in a statement.

Those employees — as long as they’re based in the U.S. or Canada — can choose to defer their return to the office by three to five months, the company said. This is for those who plan to return to the office at some point: Meta announced last year that any employee could request permanent remote work if their job allows it.

Similarly, Lyft won’t require employees to come back to the office in 2022. The company said it isn’t going fully remote and has seen more foot traffic at the office recently.

“We’ve heard from our team members that they value continued flexibility in determining where they work and would benefit from additional time to plan,” Lyft spokesperson Ashley Adams said in an email. “We want to give people a choice for all of next year.”

Many large tech companies have pushed off their returns to the office. Google, Microsoft, Uber, DoorDash and Twilio have all postponed their reopenings indefinitely, and SAP will allow for remote work until next summer.

Salesforce and Amazon will both allow for remote work until next month, but are letting teams decide how often they’ll report to the office next year.