Facebook has joined Google in announcing it will let all its employees work from home until July 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the world (via The Verge).
In addition, the company is giving each of its estimated 48,000 employees $1,000 to put towards home office equipment.
Facebook spokesperson Nneka Norville said, “Based on guidance from health and government experts, as well as decisions drawn from our internal discussions about these matters, we are allowing employees to continue voluntarily working from home until July 2021. In addition, we are giving employees an additional $1,000 for home office needs.”
With two of the world’s largest American technology companies deciding to extend working from home globally by 12 months, the industry is braced for long term change in the way companies communicate and do business.
Google’s Pixel 4a was delayed from a May to an August announcement, and the phone isn’t shipping until October in some regions. This is just an example of the kind of delays on products that have occurred in the past few months. It won’t just affect hardware either, as both companies mainly deal in software – work on which is very likely to be pushed back as people collaborate remotely.
Zuckerberg said in an interview back in March that he could foresee “about half of the company working remotely permanently.”
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.