Meta drops the hammer on return-to-office plans in leaked memo

The Bay Area tech giant laid out its plan to hold workers to a stricter in-office regimen in a Thursday note, Insider reported. In the memo, Meta Head of People Lori Goler reportedly told employees that their managers would receive their badge data and that repeated violations of the new three-day-a-week requirement could cause workers to lose their jobs.

In June, the Menlo Park-based firm announced its plan to require that most employees work from an office at least three days each week — it goes into effect Sept. 5. According to an internal memo viewed by the Wall Street Journal in June, employees averaged 2.2 days a week in the office, and only a quarter are allowed to stay fully remote. 

Meta has laid off 21,000 workers since November but still employs over 65,000 people.

The Thursday note from Goler, published in full by Insider, outlines the ways the company will oversee the masses of workers. Meta confirmed the update to SFGATE. Employees will need to use an internal product called “Status Tool” to share their planned work location with the company, the note says. Managers will be expected to review badge swipe data.

Meta employees’ jobs are on the line. Goler’s note on the return-to-office requirements, Insider reports, reads, “As with other company policies, repeated violations may result in disciplinary action, up to and including a Performance rating drop and, ultimately, termination if not addressed.”

As for employees who are grandfathered into a remote work arrangement (the firm bars managers from opening more of these positions), the note lays down a strict policy: If remote employees consistently come into the office more than four times every two months outside major events, they’ll be shifted to the three-day-a-week plan.

“We believe that distributed work will continue to be important in the future, particularly as our technology improves,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement sent to SFGATE. “In the near-term, our in-person focus is designed to support a strong, valuable experience for our people who have chosen to work from the office, and we’re being thoughtful and intentional about where we invest in remote work.”

Several major companies across the tech industry have been prodding their employees back into offices after embracing remote work during the pandemic — including, to its workers’ dismay, Zoom. Employees at Meta, which owns WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, have also seen a stark turnaround: CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Verge in May 2020 that his firm would become “the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale” and speculated that half the company could be permanently remote within a decade.

Zuckerberg also embraced this vision in his product focus, pouring billions of dollars into virtual and augmented reality research. In October, he unveiled the Meta Quest Pro headset, designed for collaborative remote work.

However, in 2023, which Zuckerberg dubbed Meta’s “year of efficiency,” employees have seen a remote-first culture melt away. In March, as the executive announced 10,000 layoffs on top of a huge cut in November, he wrote that early-career engineers do better when they’re working in person at least three days a week. 

Hear of anything happening at Meta or another tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at [email protected] or on Signal at 628-204-5452.