There's been a long tail on pandemic-era hybrid work across the Bay Area and the tech sector especially, but some big companies like Meta are now cracking the whip and calling for five mandatory in-office days, just like olden times.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri put out a memo to all employees Monday announcing that a new, five-day in-office policy would take effect February 2, 2026, as first reported by the Sources newsletter. In the memo, Mosseri also reportedly called for reigning in recurring meetings and unnecessary bureaucracy that is "slowing us down."

Instagram employees, who in the Bay Area are mostly based out of Facebook/Meta's Menlo Park offices, will be enjoying their last weeks of hybrid work after the new year if their managers even condone that.

Because, as Mosseri reportedly says in the memo, "I believe that we are more creative and collaborative when we are together in-person. I felt this pre-COVID and I feel it any time I go to our New York office where the in-person culture is strong."

The company then known as Facebook had, pre-pandemic, taken out a large and expensive lease at 181 Fremont in SoMa, marking the company's first significant move to San Francisco proper after years of being Menlo Park-focused. The office space was reportedly for Instagram staff, and it was seen as a move to attract more talent that was not interested in living on the Peninsula or commuting hours every day to work there.

It's unclear how long Instagram employees even enjoyed that space before the pandemic shifted most work remote in early 2020, and by January 2023, Meta was looking to offload all 435,000 square feet of it. Meta still reportedly had some office space at the nearby 250 Howard.

Mosseri's Monday memo, titled "Building a Winning Culture in 2026," called on Instagram staff to cancel recurring meetings every six months to reassess their necessity, and to focus on live demonstrations of new product prototypes, rather than presentation decks, to "establish a proof of concept and get a real sense for social dynamics."

As KRON4 reports, the back-to-office mandate at Instagram follows similar moves at Amazon and other large companies.