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Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

businessinsider.com

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Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#61

Post by akudha »

bradlys wrote: post #32
kkolybacz wrote: post #16

"We're also offering the option to transfer from the MPK to SF office for those people whose commute would be the same or better with that change." So wait, you'll be able to switch offices even though your team might be in the second one? What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

A ton of teams are already distributed. The RTO makes no sense unless your team is already mostly in one office but that’s not how a lot of teams are. Tons of team are completely split up across multiple states/timezones. I think IG might be more local teams than distributed but I’m not sure.

One of the teams at my workplace has 5 members in 5 different offices. They’re still forced to come to office and attend calls via Microsoft Teams from their respective offices than from their homes.

These are reasons I can think of - they want to prevent people from doing second job, they want to maintain commercial real estate prices (even if it is artificially propped up) or most likely, it is just the good old ego thing (“you work for me, I make you do things just because I can”).

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#62

Post by [deleted] »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #19
kkolybacz wrote: post #16

"We're also offering the option to transfer from the MPK to SF office for those people whose commute would be the same or better with that change." So wait, you'll be able to switch offices even though your team might be in the second one? What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

They most likely have a long-term plan to realign team boundaries with office locations, but want to minimize the short-term disruption for people who've moved around the Bay Area based on current working schedules.

[deleted]

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#63

Post by parliament32 »

paxys wrote: post #31
eutropia wrote: post #14

Instagram chief orders quiet layoffs to please investors in 2026 fixed that title for you

And the employees most likely to quit will be ones with responsibilities that make it difficult to do the commute 5 days a week - kids to pick up from daycare, health issues to manage, a social life in the evenings, travel plans - basically the exact category that a company like Meta would want to replace with a younger, more exploitable bunch.

[flagged]

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#64

Post by JumpCrisscross »

kkolybacz wrote: post #16

"We're also offering the option to transfer from the MPK to SF office for those people whose commute would be the same or better with that change." So wait, you'll be able to switch offices even though your team might be in the second one? What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

> What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

You'll cross-pollinate across functions. Or at least increase the chances of that happening. Not saying that's worth the tradeoff. But my time in the office often finds serendipitious value in random off-team conversations, not scheduled time.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#65

Post by bigmattystyles »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #64
kkolybacz wrote: post #16

"We're also offering the option to transfer from the MPK to SF office for those people whose commute would be the same or better with that change." So wait, you'll be able to switch offices even though your team might be in the second one? What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

> What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people? You'll cross-pollinate across functions. Or at least increase the chances of that happening. Not saying that's worth the tradeoff. But my time in the office often finds serendipitious value in random off-team conversations, not scheduled time.

I think you're going to get downvoted to oblivion but as far as I'm concerned, that's been my impression as well.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#67

Post by mso3i »

closeparen wrote: post #51
kkolybacz wrote: post #16

"We're also offering the option to transfer from the MPK to SF office for those people whose commute would be the same or better with that change." So wait, you'll be able to switch offices even though your team might be in the second one? What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

It's mystifying, but pretty much the entire tech leadership class has a deep conviction that taking Zoom calls on Airpods from your desk or a random corner of the office is the ideal way of working.

There is no tech leadership class.

Things have to stay stable long enough for a leadership class to emerge. In tech that is not possible. They are just leaves in the wind.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#68

Post by closeparen »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #19
kkolybacz wrote: post #16

"We're also offering the option to transfer from the MPK to SF office for those people whose commute would be the same or better with that change." So wait, you'll be able to switch offices even though your team might be in the second one? What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

They most likely have a long-term plan to realign team boundaries with office locations, but want to minimize the short-term disruption for people who've moved around the Bay Area based on current working schedules.

I doubt it. A company that is doing RTO is also a company that is aggressively offshoring and expecting you to spend your early mornings/late nights on IST friendly calls. It's just a general turn against US-based software engineers as belts tighten and the balance of power in the labor market shifts.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#69

Post by wrs »

OK, so... Employees are compelled to go into the office, so they can have better in-person collaboration. They are also encouraged not to go to meetings (aka in-person collaboration sessions), so they can have more focus time.

I haven't seen the Insta offices, but I would bet they don't have walls. In which case, you know where the best focus time is to be had? Out of the office.

Re: Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026

#70

Post by kvirani »

dexwiz wrote: post #24
kkolybacz wrote: post #16

"We're also offering the option to transfer from the MPK to SF office for those people whose commute would be the same or better with that change." So wait, you'll be able to switch offices even though your team might be in the second one? What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

I interviewed there in 2024. Said no because they said I would have to commute from SF to Menlo Park 4 days a week. They explicitly said I could not work from the SF office before I even asked.

Do you think that was a hiring manager specific preference or an overall HR policy thing? Shitty nonetheless.
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