Led by the Silicon Valley tech giants, more and more companies are extending their timelines for remote work — and some are weighing letting employees work from home forever.
Why it matters: It's becoming clear that there's no going back to the way work and workplaces were structured before the coronavirus pandemic.
Driving the news: Last week, Twitter became the first company to acknowledge that the coronavirus-triggered experiment in telecommuting is working — and told employees they never have to come back to the office if they so choose.
- Square, the contactless payments company that shares CEO Jack Dorsey with Twitter, announced a permanent work-from-home option this week.
- Amazon has extended its remote work policy through October, and Facebook and Google have done so through the end of the year. Look for these extensions to turn into permanent policies, too.
"This is the global awakening of, 'We’ve been making it way more complicated to work than it has to be,'" says Darren Murph, head of remote work at GitLab, the world's largest all-remote company. "So many companies have just been waiting for another company to go first."
The big picture: A shift to remote work has wide-ranging implications that will touch everything from companies' balance sheets to commercial real estate and urban planning.
Companies can save thousands per employee. And workers might save some money, too....
- Firms will have to spend some money to make the transition work. For example, Twitter is giving each employee $1,000 for remote work supplies.
- But in the long run — when considering cutting the costs of renting, heating and furnishing