Microsoft is reopening its Washington and Bay Area offices this month
Microsoft announced Monday it's reopening its Washington state and California Bay Area offices on Feb. 28 as Covid-19 cases continue to ease. Those offices will be open to employees, visitors and guests.
Microsoft postponed its Oct. 4 return-to-office plans indefinitely in September, impacting more than 103,000 U.S. employees. The city of Redmond, Washington, where the company is based, said on its website that more than 47,000 people work at Microsoft's headquarters.
The company has been operating under a phased return-to-work plan. The latest move is its sixth and final phase, and it says it anticipates reopening the rest of its U.S. offices as conditions allow.
“For nearly two years, our hybrid workplace model has anchored each of our work sites to one of six defined stages, allowing us to quickly adjust our guidance depending on health data, local government guidance, the availability of vaccines and vaccination rates and other considerations,” Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela said in a blog post.
Still, not all employees will return to the office full time. The company has touted more flexibility when it comes to working from home, a perk that could help retain employees.
Microsoft said Monday that it “embraces schedule flexibility as standard for most roles.” Employees can ask their managers to approve requests to adjust their work site, location or hours, the company said. Workers will have 30 days from Feb. 28 to make adjustments to their routines.
“We know there's not a singular solution to how people work best,” Capossela said in the post.
微软周一宣布，随着 Covid-19 病例继续缓解，它将于 2 月 28 日重新开放其华盛顿州和加利福尼亚湾区的办事处。这些办公室将对员工、访客和客人开放。 微软在 9 月无限期推迟了 10 月 4 日的复工计划，影响了超过 103,000 名美国员工。该公司所在的华盛顿州雷德蒙德市在其网站上表示，超过 47,000 人在微软总部工作。
该公司一直在按照分阶段的复工计划运营。最新举措是第六阶段也是最后阶段，它表示预计在条件允许的情况下重新开放其美国其他办事处。
“近两年来，我们的混合工作场所模式将我们的每个工作场所固定在六个定义阶段之一，使我们能够根据健康数据、当地政府指导、疫苗的可用性和疫苗接种率以及其他考虑因素快速调整我们的指导，”微软首席营销官克里斯·卡波塞拉在一篇博文中说。
尽管如此，并非所有员工都会全职返回办公室。该公司吹捧在家工作时具有更大的灵活性，这有助于留住员工。
微软周一表示，它“将日程安排的灵活性作为大多数角色的标准”。该公司表示，员工可以要求他们的经理批准调整其工作地点、地点或时间的请求。从 2 月 28 日起，工人们将有 30 天的时间来调整他们的日常工作。
卡波塞拉在帖子中说：“我们知道，人们如何最好地工作并没有单一的解决方案。”
