If you want to work for Facebook from your house in Peoria, Ill., don’t expect a Palo Alto, Calif.-sized paycheck.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday said half of the social-networking giant’s employees could be working remotely within the next five to 10 years, and that Facebook will begin allowing certain employees to work from home on a full-time basis.
But those remote workers will have to alert Facebook if they move to a new location by Jan. 1. and may have their pay adjusted accordingly, he added. Given that Silicon Valley has some of the priciest real estate in the country, that adjustment will likely be downward.
“We’ll adjust salary to your location at that point,” said Zuckerberg, adding that the tweak would be necessary for taxes and accounting. “There’ll be severe ramifications for people who are not honest about this.”
The shift could help remake the US job market in tech, as Facebook currently has more than 40,000 employees. Zuckerberg said there will be a wide range of jobs eligible to work remotely, beginning with newly-hired senior engineers and then expanding to current employees with strong performance reviews.
“I think we’re going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale, for sure,” Mr. Zuckerberg told employees on a Thursday live stream.
Facebook’s new remote work system is “mostly going to rely on honor code,” Zuckerberg said, but the company will “put in some basic precautions” to make sure that employees are where they say they are. Nevertheless, employees who left the Bay Area when Facebook implemented work-from-home orders in March may be able to eventually stay where they are, he said.
Zuckerberg’s surprise announcement — which followed Twitter’s announcement earlier this month that employees would eventually be allowed to work from home indefinitely — will eventually be a “win win” for workers and employers alike, according to one expert.
“Depending on how they calculate it, workers may be way better off lifestyle-wise making a little bit less but living where they want,” Michael Solomon, co-founder of tech recruiting firm 10x, told The Post.
Solomon, also author of the forthcoming book called “Game Changer,” said that mid-tier candidates will likely be happy to have the choice between a higher salary in the Bay Area or a higher quality of life somewhere else, while the cream of the crop will get their payday regardless.
“I think the best people, you’re going to have to pay them regardless of where they live or you’re going to lose them to a competitor,” he said.
Shares of Facebook closed up 0.6 percent Thursday, at $231.39.
Source: Nypost
