Twitter will allow employees to work from home indefinitely

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: This could have been Twitter’s plan all along. Earlier this year, Dorsey said their concentration in San Francisco was no longer serving them. “We will strive to be a far more distributed workforce,” he said. Covid-19 really only sped up the company’s timeline in this sense.

Twitter was among the first batch of tech companies to send its employees home as Covid-19 containment efforts ramped up around the globe. Now, the microblogging platform is telling some staffers that they can work from home indefinitely.

In an e-mail to employees obtained by BuzzFeed on Tuesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said it was unlikely that the company would reopen its offices before September. Business travel was also off the table until at least then with very few exceptions, he added. Furthermore, all scheduled in-person events for 2020 have been canceled and the allowance for work-from-home supplies was bumped up to $1,000 for all.

The memo also notes which jobs qualify for permanent work-at-home status. Employees can then opt-in if their position is eligible.

A spokesperson for Twitter told BuzzFeed that they’ll continue to be thoughtful in how they approach the work-from-home model and will continue to put the safety of their people and communities first.

Sending people home en masse to work remotely served as a giant case study that’ll likely forever change how we look at the office. Cubicles are likely to enjoy a renaissance over open workspaces and as Twitter is demonstrating, many tasks can be effectively tackled remotely.

Masthead credit: fizkes, Monkey Business Images

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/85203-twitter-allow-employees-work-home-indefinitely.html

 

[Fearghast]

TBH I am quite curious what the company I work for will do when "things return to normal".
We develop software, but we are mostly centralized in two groups in different cities ... could this situation prove we do not need centralization? We can "all" work from home? Is it cheaper for the company? Can we reach the same efficiency?
This is certainly interesting topic in general and it could bring a lot of changes, especially for smaller IT busseness. Can we all adapt and keep mind working 100% when we are at home?
I sure as hell struggle sometimes and my coffe and energy drink consumption is like 300% of the norm.

 

[MarkHughes]

I have been working from home for 8 years. To begin with it wasn't easy and I had to learn some discipline but after a time I have found my productivity to be much higher than when I am in the office.

The company I work for responded quickly and shut down all the offices and factories it could, Everyone in the office I am assigned to is WFH currently. I get the feeling some people are enjoying it and would like to stay mostly at home, But others apparently miss the social aspect of it and want to actually return. I do get the feeling the office will never be at full capacity though and I know there has been talk of dropping some offices all together in favour of home working.

 

[JKnight]

Lots of companies are probably seeing the savings. Less electricity and water usage. The company I work for is seeing a lot of savings in printing and coffee costs.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

This headline should read 'Twitter just realized they could get away with not providing office space for their employees'

 

[mbrowne5061]

This headline should read 'Twitter just realized they could get away with not providing office space for their employees'

Not "just". This is just speeding up their plan to switch to WHF, plans that pre-dated the pandemic, per the very first sentence of the article "This could have been Twitter’s plan all along. Earlier this year, Dorsey said their concentration in San Francisco was no longer serving them."