When Meta, the social media giant formerly known as Facebook, hosted the grand opening for its headquarters in Chicago's Fulton Market district last week, it was a celebration delayed more than two years by the pandemic.
Despite welcoming hundreds of cheering employees with free pie, confetti bursts and a rousing performance by the Chicago Bucket Boys, the celebration, which also marked Meta’s 15th anniversary in Chicago, was muted by a hybrid return to office that could make the expansive new workplace a monument to the past.
“We’d love to see people in the office two to three times a week,” said Judy Toland, 50, who heads up the Meta Chicago office. “But that is an option, that is not a mandate.”
