Permanent Work-from-Home Option -- Microsoft

Big companies are thinking about saving money on office space. And if their workers from home can live in a cheaper area, they'll accept a lower salary.

In September Apple CEO Tim Cook said, after building one of the most expensive office complexes designed for in-person collaboration: “I don’t believe that we’ll return to the way we were, because we found that there are some things that actually work really well virtually,”  He also pointed out that the “vast majority” of Apple employees “can’t wait until we can be back in the office.”

Facebook, Twitter, Okta, Box, crypto-exchange Coinbase, job-search firm Indeed, and many others expect Work From Home (WFH) to be a permanent option for many of their employees. Twitter put 100,000 square feet of space at its headquarters in San Francisco on the sublease market, expecting a lot of permanent WFH employees.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wants to get employees back to the office – “Going back to work is a good thing,” but  there “will be permanent changes from this.”   Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has come out against WFH and said he would bring his employees back into the office as soon as possible. But maybe one day a week working from home/

In 3Q 2020, office leasing activity collapsed in many cities as huge amounts of sublease space that companies no longer need got dumped on the market.

Microsoft is using a “Hybrid workplace". From an internal memo to employees:   “The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think, live, and work in new ways,” wrote Microsoft Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan in the memo. “We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture.”

Employees will be allowed to work from home freely, without manager’s approval, for less than 50% of their work week. The rest of the time, they go to the office. Flexible hours will be available without approval. But switching to part-time hours will require manager’s approval.  Employees can permanently work remotely with the approval from their managers.

Employees who have been approved to work from home permanently can, with approval from their managers, move across the country, or even internationally. In other words, they can work from anywhere. But his may lead to a pay-cut: Employees who move from an expensive area, such as Seattle, to a low-cost area in the US or a foreign country, will see their compensation and benefits change based on Microsoft’s geopay scale.

Microsoft will cover the office expenses of people permanently working from home. But it will not cover the moving expenses of employees who choose to move to a remote location.

Employees who then work permanently from home lose their assigned work space at the office, but they can still come in and use the “Touchdown Space” at the office.  Some jobs will require access to hardware labs, data centers, and in-person training.