Meta recently threatened to fire employees who don’t comply with strict return-to-office requirements. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg remains enthusiastic about the potential of remote work — but apparently not that much with the technologies commonly used today.
on a thursday episode During an episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, Zuckerberg was interviewed in Metaverse.He and Friedman conversed in a virtual space using a Meta Quest Pro VR headset and realistic Codec avatars, the technology behind Meta still under development.
The experience was so real that Friedman marveled on multiple occasions, saying “it was truly the most incredible thing I had ever seen” and “it felt like we were in the same room.”
After extensive conversations, Zuckerberg eventually transitioned to working remotely.
“One thing I’m curious about is there’s a lot of debate right now about remote work or people being together,” he said. “I think it brings us closer to being able to actually work in different places, but actually feel like we’re all together. I think the dream is that one day people will be able to work from anywhere they want, but we’ll have the same Opportunity because you will be able to feel that you are together.”
He compared the technology he and Friedman are using to what most remote workers currently use to connect with remote colleagues.
“I think we have more than just video conferencing and the basic technology that we have today,” he said.
Zuckerberg is one of many CEOs asking employees to return to the office and asking managers to enforce the policy through tracking card keys and other technology. But Meta’s return-to-work plan, which requires three days in the office, is not going well, and many employees who are coming to work are struggling to reserve conference rooms or desks for the day.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, admitted in a Threads post: “We haven’t found a way to hybrid work yet.” Instagram, like Facebook, is owned by Meta.
But on the Friedman Podcast, Zuckerberg gushed about the potential of leveraging the technology they use to work remotely. With it, over time, “you can get closer” to the feeling of being together physically, he said.
He continued: “That opens up a lot of opportunities, right? Because then people can live where they want and still get the physical benefits or feel like you’re with the people at work. — All of that helps build more culture and build better relationships and build trust, which I think is a real issue if you don’t meet people in person.”
Zuckerberg brag Meta embraced remote work in 2020. “We will be the most forward-thinking company at our size on remote work and have a thoughtful and responsible plan for how to do that,” he said at the time. He estimated that over the next five to 10 years, the company would be about Half of the workforce will work remotely.
But he later changed his attitude.
Paul Graham, co-founder of startup accelerator Y Combinator, noted in June, “I’ve talked to multiple founders recently who are changing their minds about remote work and trying to get people back into the office… Why are all these smart people Everyone was fooled?”? I think part of the reason is that remote working does work initially if you start with systems that are already healthy in face-to-face working. “
But many company leaders are beginning to have doubts about maintaining a strong corporate culture and trying to mentor younger employees who may have few, if any, face-to-face meetings.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the remote work “experiment” a mistake, saying at this summer’s Stripe conference:
“I think one of the biggest mistakes that the tech industry has made in a long time is definitely that everyone can be completely remote forever, and startups don’t need to be together in person, and you know, there’s no loss of creativity. What I’m saying is, The experiment in this is over, and the technology isn’t good enough yet for people to be able to work completely remotely forever, especially in startups.”
Zuckerberg seems to feel the same way about today’s technology. But the extent to which cutting-edge headsets can alleviate CEO concerns about working remotely remains an open question.
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