Mark Zuckerberg To Reward Employees By Giving Them Entire Thanksgiving Week Off

Facebook employees are getting a full week off for Thanksgiving as a token of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's appreciation for their hard work during the coronavirus pandemic.

Zuckerberg hopes to boost the morale of his employees around the world, who he said have worked through “unprecedented challenges," CNBC reported.

“The idea here is to give as many people as possible a break. I hope you can disconnect and take the time to rest and recharge before the final push of the year,” Zuckerberg wrote in an internal memo.

Facebook employees will receive an extra three-days leave, from Monday, Nov. 23, through Wednesday, Nov. 25, which may vary per geographical region and teams.

Facebook employees have been working remotely since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and that policy has been extended through the summer of 2021. The social networking giant has been preparing for the upcoming U.S. elections by implementing plans to fight fake news and misinformation on its platform.

But Facebook employees have been at odds with their employer ever since it failed to remove a post from President Donald Trump that said “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. This was in reference to the violent protests that broke out across the U.S. after an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, was killed. Floyd died when a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nine minutes.

Facebook went as far as censoring employee interaction about political views on its internal message boards.

Advertisements also have posed a challenge for Zuckerberg and the company during the 2020 presidential race. Earlier this week, Trump’s campaign ran an ad that implied he had already won the Nov. 3 election with the quote “President Trump is STILL your president.” This was a direct violation of Facebook’s policies, but Facebook said the statement was factually correct, at least till January 2021.

When Zuckerberg testified -- virtually-- Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, he insisted that Facebook isn't liable for its users’ views. Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Google's Sundar Pichai were also testifying virtually in front of the Republican-controlled committee.