Social media giant Facebook is purchasing a previously unused corporate headquarters from outdoor retailer REI despite its plan to allow more employees to work remotely.
Facebook will be buying the 400,000 square foot headquarters owned by REI in Bellevue, Washington. The property, which REI had planned to move into this summer, was put up for sale in August.
The buildings and most of the land will be acquired by Facebook for $367.6 million while the site developer is buying an undeveloped two-acre portion of the property for the rest of the sales price.
Tech firms' shift towards remote work
Most tech companies, including Facebook, have shifted most of their employees to a work-from-home setup since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Last August, the social media firm announced that it is extending its work from home policy until July of next year due to health concerns, with chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg stating earlier this year that e expects half of the Facebook's employees permanently working remotely within the next five to 10 years.
In July, Google said its employees will work from home through June 2021. The company had previously said employees may return to the office in January 2021.
"To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees.
The decision to allow Google employees to work from home will affect "nearly all" of the company’s 200,000 employees. These include contractors and full-time workers, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Last May, Twitter informed its employees that they can work from home "forever" if they want to as the company plans for what’s to come after the coronavirus pandemic.
Twitter announced that it will allow employees to work from home permanently after it said that its work from home measures during the lockdown had been successful.
Jennifer Christie, the company’s head of human resources, said: "Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus for us – and the world around us."
"While this is a big change for us, we have already been moving towards a more distributed workforce that’s increasingly remote. We’re a global service and we’re committed to enabling anyone, anywhere to work at Twitter," the company claimed.
Facebook's expansion of physical space despite the trend
Despite this ongoing trend within the company and among its fellow tech firms, Facebook has been hiring additional employees throughout this year and along with them, adding office space.
In a statement, Facebook said: "In order to address our rapidly growing workforce, we continue to make investments in physical office locations."
"In the second quarter of 2020, we added a record 4,200 net new employees and now have more than 52,000 employees. While Facebook envisions 50% of its employees will be working remotely within the next 5-10 years, our offices are still vitally important to our culture and will help accommodate anticipated growth and meet the needs of our employees that need or prefer to work from campus," the company explained.
The firm added: "An internal employee survey the company fielded in May showed that approximately 65% of Facebook employees were eager to return to the office as soon as possible."
