Coronavirus Outbreak: Facebook extends work from home policy; employees to work remotely until year-end

Facebook Inc said on Friday it would allow its workers who are able to work remotely to do so until the end of the year as the coronavirus pandemic forces governments to extend stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the disease, Reuters reported. The social media giant also expects most offices to stay closed until 6 July, according to a company spokesperson. The virus, which has infected more than 3.8 million people globally so far, has forced strict lockdowns in most countries and changed the way businesses function, with work from home emerging as the new norm. Facebook currently employs 48,268 people, an increase of 28 percent (year-over-year). Facebook employees have been working from home since March. According to the company, it would continue to pay hourly employees who may not be able to work because of reduced staffing, office closures, or if they’re sick, IANS reported. [caption id=“attachment_8348241” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Meanwhile, more than one million information technology employees are expected to continue to work from home even after the coronavirus-inflicted lockdown situation returns to normalcy,  IT industry veteran Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan had said recently, PTI reported. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak The former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said the IT services industry has actually managed to transition people to work from home during the ‘‘stay-at-home’’ period. “And that was not a trivial task. A large number of people who have to be supported with technology infrastructure to work from home; business processes will have to be changed, with client permission,” the co-founder of IT services firm Infosys Ltd told PTI. “Now I am told that 90 to 95 per cent of people in many of the larger (IT) organisations are working out of home. And that transition has been smooth and done very, very quickly. They have figured that out and I think this will now become part and parcel of the business continuity processing, planning in the future,” Gopalakrishnan had said. The Chairman of early stage startup accelerator and venture fund, Axilor Ventures, also said that many of the smaller Indian startups have found that they are as effective working out of home and are now wondering whether they require permanent office space at all. Gopalakrishnan believes at least 20-30 per cent of IT employees would continue to work from home even after the lockdown is lifted and the situation returns to normalcy. That accounts for about 1.2 million people, he said noting that four million professionals work in India’s IT-Business Process Outsourcing sector as per industry body NASSCOM figures.