[US] Microsoft employees can work from home forever

Microsoft has become the latest Big Tech company to tell its workforce not to worry about returning to the office. Microsoft employees have reportedly been told they can choose to work from home forever, even after offices reopen. Under new “hybrid workplace” guidance, employees of the software giant will be permitted to spend less than half their working hours out of the office and can stay remote permanently with approval from their managers.

In a memo seen by The Verge Microsoft said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think, live, and work in new ways. We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture.” Workers taking the option to stay at home when things do reopen back up will no longer have their assigned desks but work in common spaces instead if they visit the office. New York Post reports the story and looks at where other Big Tech names stand on homeworking. 

Microsoft has become the latest Big Tech company to tell its workforce not to worry about returning to the office. Microsoft employees have reportedly been told they can choose to work from home forever, even after offices reopen. Under new “hybrid workplace” guidance, employees of the software giant will be permitted to spend less than half their working hours out of the office and can stay remote permanently with approval from their managers.

In a memo seen by The Verge Microsoft said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think, live, and work in new ways. We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture.” Workers taking the option to stay at home when things do reopen back up will no longer have their assigned desks but work in common spaces instead if they visit the office. New York Post reports the story and looks at where other Big Tech names stand on homeworking.