Meta’s Instagram will require U.S.-based employees to work five days a week in an office starting February 2, 2026.
The new return-to-office policy applies only to Instagram and not to Meta’s other family of apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, a Meta spokesperson told CNBC.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri outlined the policy in an employee memo, according to the Sources newsletter. The mandate aims to foster a more creative and collaborative working environment.
Mosseri also plans to reduce the number of meetings at the photo-sharing unit and wants employees to debut more product prototypes instead of decks, which refers to formal written memos and related documentation, the report noted.
Shift Toward In-Person Work
Meta instituted a return-to-office mandate in September 2023, calling on employees across its family of apps to work at least three days a week from a physical office. Companies including Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet implemented similar policies at the time.
According to CNBC, tech companies and other firms have recently begun requiring employees to work five days out of the week from an office. Executives have generally characterized these policies as a way to remove organizational layers and improve collaboration in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.
Amazon put in place its five-day-a-week work mandate in January 2025. AT&T, Boeing and Dell Technologies have also instituted similar work policies.
Implications for Creator Platform
The policy change comes as Instagram continues to compete for creator attention and engagement across social media platforms. The company has not disclosed how many U.S.-based Instagram employees the new mandate affects or whether remote employees will need to relocate.
Meta’s differentiated approach (applying the five-day requirement to Instagram while maintaining the three-day policy for other units) represents a departure from the company-wide mandates typically seen across the technology sector.
The February implementation date gives affected employees roughly two months to adjust to the new working arrangement.
Karina loves writing about the influencer marketing space and an area she is passionate about. She considers her faith and family to be most important to her. If she isn’t spending time with her friends and family, you can almost always find her around her sweet yellow Labrador retriever, Poshna.
