Like many of the other global tech companies, Twitter’s employees have been working from home for over two months due to the coronavirus spread across the globe. When they left in early March to begin working at home, one has to believe they all felt they would be returning to the office before long.
However, it appears that many employees of the popular social media network won’t be returning to their offices. In an email to employees earlier this week, CEO Jack Dorsey told employees they could work from home indefinitely.
Dorsey told employees that Twitter’s offices are likely to remain closed until after the summer. The company also expects to cut business travel and cancel all in-person company events for the remainder of the year.
In an article on Buzzfeed, Twitter’s Head of Human Resources said, “never probably be the same,” in the structure of its work. “People who were reticent to work remotely will find that they really thrive that way,” Christie said. “Managers who didn’t think they could manage teams that were remote will have a different perspective. I do think we won’t go back.”
Will other companies follow Twitter’s lead by allowing remote work for the majority of its employees?
Most companies have scrambled to create home offices for their employees. They’ve transitioned to relying on tech like Zoom online videos, Slack, Google Hangouts, and other technologies designed to make work from home run smoothly. However, the question of when we return to the office largely hinges on how the virus responds. If we can get a handle on it and there is no second wave, we will likely see office life return.
It’s hard to imagine a world where almost everyone works from home. However, if the virus does have a second wave, companies will be sending employees home again and have to take a long hard look at what the future of remote work looks like for their company.
