Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces permanent Work From Home for employees, to push for remote hiring

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the social media company will allow permanent remote work for many of its existing employees and "aggressively open up" remote hiring. The social media giant is the latest in the growing list of businesses and enterprises to adopt long term work-from-home policies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.   

"I think we are going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work, at our scale for sure," Zuckerberg said, in a blog post late night. "But we will do this in a way that is measured and responsible and phased over time."

Zuckerberg expects that about 50% of Facebook's workforce will work remotely within the next five to 10 years. 

"That is not a target or a goal, but as we see the demand for remote work, coupled with aggressive remote hiring, I think it is quite possible that is where we will be," he said. 

Facebook was one of the firsts to adapt Work from Home as situation got worse due to the coronavirus outbreak. It had already asked its entire staff to work from home through the end of this year, and potentially longer if the coronavirus pandemic resurges in the fall. It also plans to open up remote hiring in the US and Canada, a move that Zuckerberg said will significantly expand Facebook's recruiting ability and access to talent. 

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"It doesn't seem that good to constrain hiring to people who live around offices," Zuckerberg said. "Right now we are doing well recruiting in small hubs, but being able to recruit more broadly is going to open a lot of new talent that maybe wouldn't have considered moving to a big city. It's also going to help us retain some important talent." 

The company will focus on building remote work hubs in Atlanta, Dallas and Denver. More immediately, the company will work to hire experienced engineers who live within a certain distance -- say a one to four hour drive -- from the cities where it has existing engineering offices, such Portland, San Diego, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.