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Meta recently threatened to fire employees who did not obey to its strict return-to-office mandate. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg is still enthusiastic about the potential of remote work—just not with the technology commonly used today.
In a Thursday episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, Zuckerberg gave an interview within the metaverse. He and Fridman conversed in a virtual-reality space using Meta Quest Pro VR headsets and photorealistic Codec Avatars, technology that Meta is still developing.
The experience was so eerily realistic that Fridman marveled at it repeatedly, saying things like “this is really the most incredible thing I've ever seen” and “it feels like we're in the same room.”
During the wide-ranging conversation, Zuckerberg eventually turned to remote work.
“One of the things that I'm curious about is, there are all these debates right now about remote work, or people being together,” he said. “I think this gets us a lot closer to being able to work physically in different places, but actually have it feel like we're together. I think the dream is that people will one day be able to just work wherever they want, but we'll have all the same opportunities because you'll be able to feel like you're physically together.”
He contrasted the technology that he and Fridman were using to the tools that most remote workers use currently to connect with distant colleagues.
“I think we're not there today with just video conferencing and the basic technologies that we have,” he said.
Zuckerberg is one of many CEOs demanding employees return to the office and having managers enforce the policy by tracking card keys and other techniques. But Meta’s return-of-office push, which calls for three days in the office, has not gone smoothly, with many employees who do show up struggling to book a conference room or secure a desk for the day.
“We have not yet figured out hybrid work,” admitted Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, which like Facebook is owned by Meta, in a Threads post.
But on the Fridman podcast, Zuckerberg gushed about the potential of remote work with the technology they were using. With it, he said, over time “you could get closer” to the feeling of being physically together.
He continued: “That would open up a lot of opportunities, right? Because then people could live physically where they want, while still being able to get the benefits of being physically, or kind of feeling like you're together with people at work—all the ways that that helps to build more culture and build better relationships and build trust, which I think are real issues if you're not seeing people in person ever.”