Facebook Cancels All Large Physical Events Through June 2021
Mark Zuckerberg has taken to Facebook to update everyone on how his social network is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic over the next few months and into 2021.
The biggest news, while also being the least surprising, is Facebook has canceled “any large physical events we had planned with 50 or more people through June 2021.” Just like Microsoft, Facebook is taking a digital-first approach to such gatherings and intends to hold virtual events instead where it can. Added to that, don’t expect any Facebook employees to turn up at events that do still run as no business travel is allowed, at least, not until the end of June this year.
Just like the rest of us, Facebook employees need to stay at home if they can. Zuckerberg has decided the stay at home policy Facebook has in place for “the vast majority of our employees” will remain until at least the end of May. The only exceptions to that rule are workers who can’t be remote, with Zuckerberg pointing to “content reviewers working on counter-terrorism or suicide and self-harm prevention, and engineers working on complex hardware.”
Even as we reach June, the work at home policy may remain in place depending on what stage the US is at in the pandemic. If the policy is lifted then and people return to work, Zuckerberg is keen to point out individuals will be able to choose to continue to work at home “if there’s any reason they feel they can’t work in our offices — because they are in a vulnerable population, because with schools and camps canceled they don’t have childcare, or anything else.” He sees that situation changing at the end of the summer, though.
If Zuckerberg has judged this right, then workers in general should get used to being at home until at least June, and for things to only really start returning to normal once the nights start drawing in again in September.
