Facebook owner Meta warns employees could be fired for ignoring new three-day-per-week office rule

Staff at Facebook and Instagram have been warned they could face termination if they are slack about coming back into the office.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is demanding staff come back to offices. (Photo by MANDREL NGAN / POOL / AFP)

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, has delivered a fresh warning to employees about their office attendance – cautioning that workers who fall short of a looming three-day-per-week requirement could lose their jobs.

The email from Lori Goler, Meta’s “head of people,” reminded workers that “beginning September 5, people assigned to an office will need to spend at least three days per week in person to foster healthy relationships and strong collaboration,” reported the New York Post.

“Managers will review badge and Status Tool information on a monthly basis and follow up with those who didn’t meet the requirement, subject to local law and works council requirements,” Ms Goler said in the memo obtained by website Insider.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is demanding staff come back to offices. (Photo by MANDREL NGAN / POOL / AFP)

“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,” the memo added.

Meta is in the midst of a “year of efficiency” ordered by Mr Zuckerberg, who has expressed a desire to cut costs and streamline the company’s operations.

The austerity measures included a total of approximately 21,000 lay-offs, or roughly a quarter of the Facebook and Instagram parent’s overall work force.

The return-to-work attendance directive only applies to Meta employees who are assigned to a specific office. Conversely, Meta instructed “remote workers not to visit the office more than four days every two months” without a “clear business reason”.

Meta corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)

“We believe that distributed work will continue to be important in the future, particularly as our technology improves,” a Meta spokesman said in a statement.

“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,” he added.

After a dismal 2022, Meta shares have surged more than 120 per cent since January — bolstered by improved financial results and investor enthusiasm over the budget-tightening plan.

In June, Meta instructed most employees that they’d be expected to work from an office at least three days per week. At the time, the company confirmed that remote employees would not be affected.

Certain staff will have to work at least three days a week in an office. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

Mr Zuckerberg had earlier nudged employees in March to start spending more time on site.

“Our early analysis of performance data suggests that engineers who either joined Meta in-person and then transferred to remote or remained in-person performed better on average than people who joined remotely,” Mr Zuckerberg said in the post.

The Instagram owner isn’t the only Big Tech firm enforcing a return-to-office plan.

Last week, Amazon triggered outrage among workers after top brass sent an email warning that some workers were “not currently meeting” an “expectation that they work in an assigned office at least three days per week”.

“Is this supposed to scare people?” one Amazon employee wrote in an internal Slack channel, according to a screenshot seen by Insider.

Amazon had earlier contended with a mass walkout from disgruntled corporate staffers over its office attendance requirement and climate policies.

This story appeared in The New York Post and is reproduced with permission.