Microsoft to allow employees to work from home permanently

Microsoft will allow more of its employees to work from home permanently for “less than 50% of their working week”, the company announced in a blog post on October 9.

Further to that, for staff whose work can be done entirely remotely, they will be given options to relocate – even internationally – if approved. However, they will have to give up their assigned office space, although Microsoft will cover their home office expenses.

Part-time working hours will also be available for employees with approval from their manager.

Kathleen Hogan, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, said in the blog post, “Over the past few months, we have learned so much about productivity, flexibility, resilience and compassion.

“We have been working in ways we never thought possible, including managing necessary safety precautions, learning to connect with small or large teams while presenting to a screen, taking care of family and friends while being in the next room on calls, adjusting hours to address new demands and so much more. And I am deeply empathetic that this is on top of navigating the emotional toll of all that we are witnessing and experiencing.

“At the same time, the pandemic has raised questions about what our employees can expect in the future, so we provided some guidance this week to employees on our thinking about work flexibility. Moving forward, it is our goal to offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs and ensuring we live our culture,” she added.

Currently, most of Microsoft’s 150,000 employees globally are working from home after the company announced they would not reopen their offices until at least January 2021.

Microsoft is not the first company to make a permanent shift to remote working. Twitter announced that employees can continue to work from home indefinitely, while Facebook foresees that up to 50% of its employees will work remotely on a full-time basis.