Facebook is extending its work from home policy until July of next year, becoming the latest tech giant to commit to letting staff work remotely in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“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,” said Nneka Norville, a Facebook spokesperson, on Thursday.
Norville also said Facebook (FB) is giving employees $1,000 for “home office needs.”
Google also recently extended its work from home policy until July 2021. And some companies, including Twitter (TWTR), have said their staff may work remotely indefinitely.
The announcement follows previous indications from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that as many as 50% of Facebook employees could be working remotely within the next five to 10 years.
Zuckerberg pitched the idea to Facebook staff as both a matter of satisfying employee desires and also as an effort to create “more broad-based economic prosperity.”
“When you limit hiring to people who live in a small number of big cities, or who are willing to move there, that cuts out a lot of people who live in different communities, have different backgrounds, have different perspectives,” Zuckerberg said on a livestream posted to his Facebook page in May.
