Some Facebook Employees Will Continue Working From Home Through January 2022

When the pandemic hit, Facebook sent most employees home to work. Many of its employees are still working from home, but Facebook is looking ahead to bringing them back to work. Facebook has now confirmed that due to ongoing fears with the COVID-19 delta variant, its employees will continue to work from home through at least January 2022.

Facebook said that it's basing its return to work on data, not dates. The social network says health data shows COVID delta variant infections are on the rise. As a result, it won't require its US teams to go back to the office until the beginning of 2022. The company noted January would be the return to work date for some countries outside the US as well.

Facebook says its return work plans continue to prioritize the safety of its employees. Previously, the company had announced its employees would return to their offices in October. However, that return to work plan did have caveats requiring masks and vaccinations. The social network isn't alone in delaying the return to work for its employees. Amazon is eyeing the beginning of 2022 for employees to return to the office, while Lyft plans to wait until February 2022.

It remains unclear when many large employers in the US intend to return their employees to the office. For many companies, plans are in flux as new data is published about new variants of COVID. Essential employees have remained in the office during the entire pandemic at many businesses.

Despite some workers never leaving the office, many companies have realized they can conduct business without having physical locations. The pandemic has also proven to some companies that it makes sense to open available positions to anyone within the country no matter where they live, making it easier to find workers in the future.