After the pandemic, many tech companies have started setting new workplace norms by letting their employees work from home indefinitely!

After Facebook, Google, and Twitter, Microsoft has also allowed its employees to work remotely on a permanent basis. Announced on Friday, the company will reveal a “hybrid workplace” guidance to provide employees with flexibility in opting for their own working environment.

The latest plan will reportedly permit employees to work remotely for less than 50 percent of their working weeks due to raging coronavirus crisis, or to either seek approval from managers if they want permanent remote work.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think, live, and work in new ways,“ said Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer in a memo sent to the employees. “We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual work styles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture.”

While many employees can easily avail the advantage of permanent remote work, there are certain employees whose job nature wouldn’t allow them to transition to working remotely.

Microsoft listed a few roles that still require their in-person presence to operate their job duties, including those who require access to labs, data centers, and in-person raising sessions even during Covid-19 restrictions. The company also permitted their employees to relocate domestically after taking approval, and even internationally if their nature of work allowed them so.

The decision comes months after the company notified employees that its offices in the US won’t reopen until January 2021.

Microsoft is the latest addition to the list of large tech companies who have allowed their employees to work indefinitely as a result of the pandemic.

Source: The verge