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- Mark Zuckerberg plans to spend half the next year working remotely, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- Zuckerberg said in a memo to staff that remote working helped him spend more time with his family.
- Facebook also said it would let more staff, including those at entry level, work from home permanently.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Facebook is letting more employees work from home – and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg is no exception.
Zuckerberg plans to spend up to half of the next year working remotely, according to a memo reported by The Wall Street Journal.
"I've found that working remotely has given me more space for long-term thinking and helped me spend more time with my family, which has made me happier and more productive at work," Zuckerberg wrote to employees on Wednesday, per The Journal.
CNN reported that he would work remotely for at least half of the next year, citing a Facebook spokesperson.
In a separate memo the same day, Facebook said that staff at all levels would now be eligible for remote working, including those in entry-level roles, as long as their roles allow for off-site working, The Journal reported.
The company told its roughly 60,000 employees they would need permission to stay working from home - otherwise, they would need to come to the office at least 50% of the time, it said.
Facebook said it would likely open most US offices at half capacity in September before opening them fully in October.
Facebook first announced its long-term remote work policy in May 2020, when Zuckerberg said he expected half of its workforce to be entirely remote within the next decade.
Facebook also said in Wednesday's memo to staff that it would expand eligibility for staff to work remotely from overseas, CNN reported. The social-media giant told employees that from next week, staff from the US would be able to work remotely in Canada and employees in Europe or the Middle East would be able to work from the UK.
There is growing momentum for companies to let employees work from home permanently.
Twitter, Salesforce, and Ford have said their employees can work remotely post-pandemic, and some companies are canceling office leases.
Coinbase is even scrapping its former San Francisco headquarters in favor of a decentralized and remote model, and Spotify said it would pay for staff to work from co-working spaces.
But some companies are hesitant to let staff work from home permanently. Google is opening new offices in Houston and Portland and has resisted going fully remote, while Apple employees have fought back against a policy asking them to return to the office for three days a week.
A report by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that working from home means longer hours, fewer sick days, and fewer bonuses.