The technology CEO addressed his employees in a 2,200-word memo.
Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that according to the company’s internal data analysis, engineers who initially joined the organization face-to-face performed better than those who work remotely.
“Our initial analysis of performance data suggests that engineers who joined Meta in person and then transferred remotely or remained onsite had a best average performance than people who joined remotely,” Zuckerberg said.
This message came in a lengthy memo from 2,200 words sent to the workers in which, in a complementary way, the dismissal of 10 thousand new employees was announcedthus reaching 21 thousand positions in a matter of months.
These same data also indicate that engineers who are “early in their career” perform best when they work face-to-face and collaboratively with colleagues at least three days a week.
To soften these claims, Zuckerberg explained that he believes that being in the same physical space with coworkers helps strengthen relationships and to generate cohesion and trust among team members.
And while the businessman does not reach any definitive conclusion or propose changes, he explains that they are investigating the issue further to find a model that allows people to build “the connections necessary to work effectively.”
However, these performance data that Meta handles suggest that the company is going to reduce the options of its employees in the short term.
“This requires further study, but our hypothesis is that it’s still easier to build trust in person and that those relationships help us work more effectively.”
In another point he maintained that Meta is fully committed to distributed work. “That means we’re also willing to continually refine our model to make it work as efficiently as possible.”
Last throes of the pandemic
The employee workplace is also becoming more important in Meta. The company adopted the work hybrid and distance during the pandemic, giving many employees the freedom to choose where to do their work.
While he said the company is committed to enabling both remote and hybrid work, Zuckerberg noted that Meta has observed that some employees could benefit from more time with coworkers.
“Last year was a humble wake-up call,” Zuckerberg wrote. “The world economy changed, competitive pressures increased and our growth slowed considerably,” he said.
To this we must add that Meta is reducing its real estate footprint, while redoubling its ambitions with technologies related to the metaverse, which at first glance would suggest that it expands the possibilities of teleworking.
However, it seems that the company wants people to come to the office in person more frequently than is currently the case.
The truth is that, for the moment, Meta does not plan to introduce any specific requirements in this regard, but that could change as other technology companies reevaluate their own approach.
SL
