The world has been changed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Almost all points of what we used to know are in some ways now different. These changes will no doubt last as long as the pandemic, and many will last even longer.
In the world of work, the transition from offices to home has been a worldwide reality. Now, six of the world’s largest tech companies have revealed that these advents of working-from-home may be a permanent fixture. At least for the foreseeable future. These tech companies include:
Mark Zuckerberg says that as many as 50% of Facebook employees could be working remotely within the next five to 10 years. Facebook’s CEO pitched the idea as both of a matter of satisfying employee desires and also in an effort to establish a “more broad-based economic prosperity.”
“When you limit hiring to people who live in a small number of big cities, or who are willing to move there, that cuts out a lot of people who live in different communities, have different backgrounds, have different perspectives,” Zuckerberg says on a Livestream posted to his Facebook page.
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Twitter is allowing a large part of its workforce to continue to work from home indefinitely if they so choose.
CNN writes that the social media powerhouse did not specify which roles will qualify for work-from-home, but the company did say that the recent experience of having to work from home for the past several months shows that Twitter employees can continue remote work for the foreseeable future.
“If our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen,” says Twitter’s VP of people, Jennifer Christie, in a statement to CNN Business. “If not, our offices will be their warm and welcoming selves, with some additional precautions, when we feel it’s safe to return.”
- Square
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s other company, Square, is also planning to allow staff members to work from home once the pandemic ends. The company wants employees to be able to work where they want in an environment that suits them.
“Moving forward, Squares will be able to work from home permanently, even once offices begin to reopen. Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned a lot about what it takes for people to effectively perform roles outside of an office, and we will continue to learn as we go,” a spokesperson told The Verge.
- Shopify
CEO of Shopify, Tobi Lutke, announced that the world of work has been turned on its head.
As of today, Shopify is a digital by default company. We will keep our offices closed until 2021 so that we can rework them for this new reality. And after that, most will permanently work remotely. Office centricity is over.
— Tobi Lutke 🌳🌲🛒🕹 (@tobi) May 21, 2020
Lutke said Shopify, an eCommerce platform for small businesses, will keep its offices closed until 2021. This year, Shopify will rework its physical spaces for this new reality. Afterwards, most employees will work remotely – permanently.
“Until recently, work happened in the office. We’ve always had some people remote, but they used the internet as a bridge to the office. This will reverse now,” Lutke tweeted. “The future of the office is to act as an on-ramp to the same digital workplace that you can access from your #WFH setup.”
- Groupe PSA
French automobile manufacturer PSA announced a “new era of agility” in which non-production staff will work remotely from now on.
“Given the positive experience and efficient measures already taken in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, Groupe PSA has therefore decided to strengthen teleworking and to make it the benchmark for activities not directly related to production,” the company says.
Following this, the company is planning to redesign its offices to allow for in-person collaboration when needed, but PSA will reduce its real estate footprint. The company says it will allow employees to have a better work-life balance and easier commutes.
PSA, which makes Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall, says the new work-from-home plans will be implemented in the summer.
- Box
Box CEO Aaron Levie wrote in a blog post that the cloud-storage company’s nearly 2000 employees are free to ‘work from anywhere’ until the end of 2020.
Before the pandemic, Levie said about 15% of Box’ staff worked remotely, a number that is expected to go up. “At the same time, we know the power of having office hubs where in-person communities, mentorship, networking, and creativity can happen…That is why our future is a hybrid one.”
In the future, Levie says, that the staff’s weekly all-hands meetings would remain “fully virtual” in the future. Stipends would be available to help improve their home office setups.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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