Zuckerberg: Facebook canceling large events through June 2021, will allow employees to work from home through the summer

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced that the company will allow its employees to work from home through the summer and it will not host any large events until at least July 2021.

“Most Facebook employees are fortunate to be able to work productively from home, so we feel a responsibility to allow people who don’t have this flexibility to access shared public resources first,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Facebook. “I hope this helps contain the spread of Covid-19 so we can keep our communities safe and get back up and running again soon.”

Zuckerberg’s announcement outlines the company’s plan for returning employees back to work. Facebook employees will be required to work from home until at least the end of May, but the company will allow employees who for any reason feel that they cannot return then to continue working from home “through at least the summer.” Facebook will also extend its policy of no business travel through at least June of this year.

“We know that most people can’t work from home as easily as many of our employees can,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We also know that when society does eventually start re-opening, it will have to open slowly in staggered waves to make sure that the people who are returning to work can do so safely and that we minimize the possibility of future outbreaks.”

Additionally, the company said it will not host any physical events consisting of 50 or more people through June 2021. The company will instead host gatherings of that size as virtual events.

Zuckerberg’s announcements are the latest in a series of steps Facebook has taken to protect its employees in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Over the past two months, Facebook has canceled its F8 annual software developer conference, required most of its employees to work from home, given employees $1,000 bonuses for their work-from-home and child-care needs, provided employees with Portal video-calling devices and allowed employees who need to take time off to do so.