Yahoo Finance Twitter employees can work from home permanently
Employees at social media giant Twitter will be able to choose if they return to the office following the coronavirus pandemic.
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Twitter believes it will reopen offices in September at the earliest, however employees at the American company will be able to work from home full time beyond that.
"We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow folks to work from home given our emphasis on decentralisation and supporting a distributed workforce capable of working from anywhere," a Twitter spokesperson said.
"The past few months have proven we can make that work. So 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."
Staff were told of the new arrangements in an email from CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday. The scheme comes after other major companies including Facebook and Google have told staff they can work from home until 2021.
It also means any job openings in the future will likely come with the option to work remotely.
Twitter was one of the first major companies to send staff home, asking all 5,000 global staff to work from home in early March.
“We are operating out of an abundance of caution and the utmost dedication to keeping our Tweeps healthy,” Twitter people team lead Jen Christie said at the time.
“Our Real Estate & Workplace team is increasing deep cleaning and sanitising in all spaces, as well as more visual reminders for personal hygiene best practices and pre-packaged, pre-composed, and pre-plated food options.”
It comes as experts predict a huge uptake of remote working arrangements beyond the coronavirus pandemic.
Facebook: work-from-home til 2021
Google: work-from-home til 2021
Twitter: some work-from-home forever
Bet these to become precedent-setting decisions that shape how digital companies handle the year. We're all looking for playbooks, & 3 majors just made the first move.— Jack Appleby (@JuiceboxCA) May 12, 2020
In fact, according to the CEO of CommercialPropertyMadeEasy.com, there will be as many as 20 per cent fewer desks in offices once office working resumes.
He said that’s due to an uptake in remote work and spatial distancing requirements.
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