As vaccines roll out more broadly, U.S. tech companies are starting to set dates for when employees can begin returning to their corporate offices. Some Uber and Microsoft workers will trickle back to West Coast campuses Monday; at Facebook, employees will start returning to the company’s headquarters in early May.
Most companies are bringing back workers on a voluntary basis, at least for the initial few months, and many have yet to disclose their plans. For those that have, tech companies often are putting in place policies recognizing that employees enjoyed aspects of working from home and aren’t keen to return to five-day-a-week commutes.
That sentiment was evident in a survey of The Information’s subscribers late last week: Some 86% of respondents said they would prefer to work remotely at least two days a week beginning this fall. Only 6% said they would prefer not to work remotely at all. (See additional results from the survey, including when employees expect to resume business travel and when they might again start attending conferences in person, below.)