Facebook Parent to Allow Employees to Delay Return to Offices

The parent company of Facebook FB 2.40% said Tuesday it will fully reopen its U.S. offices at the end of January, but will give workers a chance to delay their scheduled return as late as June.

Meta Platforms Inc.’s FB 2.40% new “office deferral program” is designed to give employees flexibility in coming back to offices and determining how they work, a spokesman said. The company previously offered most of its employees the option to work remotely full-time.

The move by Meta comes at a time when many companies are rethinking return-to-office plans because of uncertainty about the Omicron variant and an uptick in Covid-19 cases. Companies including Ford Motor Co. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have delayed required return-to-office dates in recent days, while others are moving ahead with existing plans.

Many of Meta’s U.S. offices, including its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, have reopened at a limited capacity in recent months. The office-deferral program, available to employees in the U.S. and Canada, is meant for staffers who want to put off an office return for three to five months, but who don’t want to opt in to long-term remote work.

Meta requires anyone working at its U.S. offices to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The company had more than 68,100 full-time employees world-wide as of Sept. 30, and about half of its workforce is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“For those wishing to return in January we look forward to providing a vibrant office experience that continues to prioritize health and safety. We also recognize that some aren’t quite ready to come back,” Janelle Gale, a vice president of human resources at Meta, said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the name Meta better reflects the company’s vision for the future, and described plans for the metaverse during a virtual event. Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. also said on Tuesday that it was adjusting plans and would no longer require its staff to return to the office in February. Offices are open for those wanting to work there, the company said, though employees will have the option to continue working remotely throughout next year.

Across industries, corporate executives have questioned for months how to handle return-to-office timelines, and the new variant has added uncertainty to those plans. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. had planned for its senior leaders to return to its Connecticut office on Monday, but said last week that those employees would remain remote for now out of an abundance of caution as scientists work to understand the variant’s transmissibility and vaccine effectiveness. A spokesman said the company will set a new date for senior leaders to return, and is moving forward with plans to bring employees back to the office on Jan. 18.

Dell Technologies Inc. told employees last week that it plans to begin reopening its remaining offices after Jan. 4. In a note to employees, Jenn Saavedra, Dell’s human-resources chief, said the company continued to monitor the variant and added that it still plans to offer flexible working arrangements. “Those whose work allows it—and who choose to do so—may continue to work virtually,” Ms. Saavedra said in the memo. “And as we move forward, we know one approach won’t work for all.”

—Preetika Rana contributed to this article.