With the vaccination process advancing and after a year of working remotely, some companies around the world are planning to return to their offices. However, the pandemic is still far from over and it is necessary to maintain health safety rules to ensure the safety of people. In that sense, Facebook announced that it will force its employees to wear face masks.
The company had already made known its plans to resume its face-to-face activities and has now given more details about it. He announced that all employees will be required to wear face masks when the offices reopen, which he has planned for October. However, the policy goes into effect on August 3 and until further notice.
"Given the growing number of Covid-19 cases, the latest data on variants, and an increasing number of local requirements, we are reinstating our requirement to wear face masks at all Facebook offices in the United States, regardless of state. of vaccination of an employee, "said a spokesman for Facebook.
The Facebook update happened on the same day that health officials in the Bay Area announced the reinstatement of indoor mask requirements in several counties. The order comes amid a surge in Covid-19 cases across the country, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even updated its guide last week to recommend the use of face masks for people vaccinated in areas with high infection rates.
They will also ask that they be vaccinated
The average use of face masks is one more step in Facebook's plans to resume its face-to-face activities.
Last week, in a message sent to the media, Facebook's vice president of personnel, Lori Goler, confirmed what her policy will be to follow to return to their buildings: “As our offices reopen, we will demand that all people who come to work at any of our campuses in the United States get vaccinated. How we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations. We will have a process for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and will evaluate our approach in other regions as the situation evolves. We continue to work with experts to ensure that our return-to-office plans prioritize everyone's health and safety. "
Although the dates for the reopening of the offices are not clarified in the letter, initially the company had planned to reach half capacity in September and reach full capacity in October.
Beyond that, it should be recalled that earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that employees could apply for permanent remote work positions. In the same post, he noted that within the next five to 10 years, up to half of the company's workforce could be made up of remote workers.
And it is that, when the health emergency due to Covid-19 took the world by surprise, the technology industry was among the first to support the home office that they have maintained for more than a year for most of their employees and, after the results and benefits obtained, they unveiled new work schemes that, even, once the pandemic was controlled, would allow employees to work from home a few days a week, in addition to announcing new remote jobs.