Facebook is letting its American employees work remotely through July 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic continues to plague the country.
The social media giant announced the news to Business Insider also revealing that they would also be giving workers money to pay for home office supplies.
‘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,’ spokesperson Nneka Norville told the publication.
‘In addition, we are giving employees an additional $1,000 for home office needs.’
Facebook is following in the footsteps of Google, who announced last week that they would also allow their employees to work from home until July of next year.
According to Business Insider, Facebook ‘expects to have up to 50% of its workforce working remotely in the next five to ten years’.
That plan comes despite the fact Facebook has just leased out the entirety of Manhattan’s Farley Building to use as its New York office space.
The gigantic 730,000-square-foot space could boost the the number of Facebook employees in NYC to 10,000, according to AMNY.
The deal had been discussed for months but came as a surprise now with many employees still working from home and wealthy New Yorkers staying away from the city.
Thousands of New York City residents fled Manhattan and Brooklyn earlier this year when the city was the COVID-19 epicenter of the world.
Many flocked to their second homes in the Hamptons or upstate, while others rented or bought new properties, abandoning their expensive city apartments.
On Tuesday, Gov Cuomo begged them to return if the city is to be saved from economic ruin.
‘I talk to them literally every day. I say. “When are you coming back? I’ll buy you a drink. I’ll cook,’ he said.
The shutdown in March had cratered NYC’s economy with small businesses struggling to recover and being forced to close despite the gradual reopening following the peak of the city’s coronavirus outbreak.
Yet according to the New York Times, Facebook has continued to bring in more staff and now has more than 4,000 employees in its Manhattan offices, up from about 2,900 employees at the beginning of 2020.
Facebook spokeswoman Jamila Reeves said Monday that Farley will be a tech and engineering hub that will allow the company to grow teams in New York that before were located in the company’s San Francisco and Menlo Park headquarters in California.
The leased space in the Farley Building is expected to open in late 2021, Reeves said.
Manhattan is Facebook’s largest operation on the East Coast, with just over 4,000 employees, more than half of whom are engineers, she added.
‘Facebook first joined New York’s vibrant business and tech community in 2007,’ said Reeves.
‘Since that time, we’ve continuously grown and expanded our presence throughout the city. The Farley Building will further anchor our New York footprint and create a dedicated hub for our tech and engineering teams.’
The lease at Farley building means Facebook has now acquired more than 2.2million square feet of Manhattan office space over the past year, all located between Penn Station and the Hudson River.
