Facebook's Irish offices are set to re-open in early July to match the Irish government's timeline, but the firm is planning to continue remote work.
The Irish government's timeline for opening businesses after the pandemic sees a phased return to work, and Facebook has now confirmed that it aims to re-open its Irish offices in early July. It's selected this time to keep its re-opening in line with plans for its other offices around the world, and the initial opening will be very limited to keep to government advice.
Facebook's offices in Dublin and Cork service around 5,000 employees, but only a fraction of them will be returning in the first few weeks of re-opening. The remainder of its workforce will remain remote where possible, but there are some critical workers who aren't permitted to work from home as they deal with highly sensitive data on anti-terrorism and suicide prevention efforts.
Things will look very different in the offices when they do eventually re-open, as new measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus are being put in place and employees are being spread further apart to allow them to distance while working. Employees will also have to wear masks in the office as a matter of policy, and global travel may be restricted.
Having successfully transitioned to a work-from-home model, Facebook has also become one of the latest major tech firms to announce plans to embrace working from home in the future as a long-term policy. Around 45,000 of the company's employees worldwide are expected to remain remote after the pandemic ends. Twitter also recently announced plans to allow employees to remain remote.
Source: Irish Times
