Friends, are you still lying at home in your pajamas and pajamas? Please be prepared, the bosses have begun to plan to call you back to the office to meet. The COVID-19 pandemic has lasted for two full years, and while some tech companies once expressed support for permanent work from home, as the pandemic has leveled off, many companies have now "repented," such as Twitter, Salesforce, Meta, and other companies that have strongly supported remote engineering, and have recently begun to shift to hybrid work. Most tech companies still want employees to be able to meet face-to-face and return to pre-pandemic work norms.
In fact, since the second half of last year, many Silicon Valley technology companies have begun to implement plans to reopen their offices, but due to the emergence of the new crown variant virus, they have to push the date back and forth. But tech companies are also realizing that the longer the days of telecommuting drag on, the harder it will be to get employees back. Therefore, when the recent epidemic situation eased, everyone quickly launched a convocation order to the employees.
In addition, Silicon Star people also noticed that although employees need to return to the offline has become the consensus of many companies, but in the treatment of how to carry out the office, technology companies also have different ideas: some take advantage of the downturn in the property market to hoard office buildings, there is a situation of doing a big job after the epidemic; some have begun to withdraw from office buildings to turn to hotels, buy farms, and prepare to open a completely different office environment.
| Tech giants' offices are gradually opening up, starting with hybrid offices
Recently, with the spread of vaccination and the normalization of the epidemic, companies, represented by a number of technology giants, have begun to formulate park opening hours, trying to pull employees back to the office by opening up park benefits and mixed offices.
Microsoft: Washington and Silicon Valley headquarters were restarted on February 28
Microsoft officially reopened its headquarters in Washington and Silicon Valley on Feb. 28, and is now open to employees, visitors, and services such as shuttle and ride-sharing.
Starting Feb. 28, employees will have 30 days to plan to adjust their day-to-day work patterns. Employees can still maintain a flexible working model, but they need to work with their superiors to adjust the location and time of work according to the team's work situation. Currently, employees can work from home for up to half a week, depending on their circumstances, but if they want to work from home for a longer period of time, they need to be approved by their superiors. The new work schedule will be formally implemented on March 28, which will be based on individual and team circumstances, and there will be no single solution implemented at this time.
Microsoft said that as of Feb. 8, 83.8 percent of people living in The area where Microsoft employees live in Washington State had completed COVID-19 vaccinations, and 91.6 percent had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Next, Microsoft will gradually open up its offices everywhere, but also need to show vaccination certificates to employees entering the office.
Google: Relax the mandatory requirements for covid-19 prevention and control, and restore welfare facilities in the park
This week, Google employees also received emails from the company, indicating that the company will relax some of the mandatory epidemic prevention regulations, and the headquarters campus will also resume providing various benefits to encourage employees to return to the office to work.
Last November, Google told employees that they must comply with the company's policies on vaccination and COVID-19 monitoring, or they could even face pay cuts or dismissals. But this time, Google has significantly eased its attitude towards epidemic prevention, including the cancellation of the requirement for employees to conduct weekly COVID-19 tests in the Silicon Valley campus in January, and the social distancing requirements and mandatory wearing of masks for vaccinated employees in most areas.
But Google says employees still need to show proof of vaccination to enter the office, and employees of unvaccinated people must be tested for viruses and wear masks when entering the office area. In addition, Google will restore various park benefits to attract employees to return. This includes the opening of a fitness center service that does not require an appointment for massages, the opening of a shuttle bus for employees, the addition of space for a free brunch, and the reopening of all non-office spaces in the park, including lounges, games rooms, music rooms, and massage chair areas.
Although Google has not yet issued a mandatory return order, the move is considered a signal that Google will soon open an office on a large scale. According to the policy previously announced by Google, after the opening of the office, Google will implement a hybrid office model, requiring most employees to return to the office at least three days a week. Google said about 30 percent of Silicon Valley employees came to the office last week, and the company said it is currently planning a "celebration" to welcome employees back.
Meta: The office opens at the end of March, and employees need to make their choice of office mode by March 14
Meta's office, which was scheduled to be fully open on January 31, announced that it would postpone opening hours to March 28 in response to changes in the epidemic. In addition to the office being fully open at the end of this month, employees will also need to submit their decision to their superiors on March 14 whether they want to return to the office or continue to work from home.
According to an email from Meta's hr department, Meta believes that ongoing uncertainty makes it difficult for employees to make decisions about where and when to work, so Meta gives more time to choose the way that works best for them. If employees choose to work remotely, they will be allowed to postpone their return to the office by 3-5 months. If the employee chooses to return to the office, the third dose of the booster injection must be completed.
Apple: $1,000 per person for working from home, but the recent return may be a foregone conclusion
Previously, Apple had set the return time on February 1, because the new crown epidemic heated up, Apple postponed the return of employees to the office. To that end, Apple has distributed $1,000 to each employee to purchase home office equipment.
Although the time to return to work has not yet been determined, Apple has repeatedly said publicly that employees will eventually return to the office. In an interview last year, Cook said, "Video conferencing can indeed shorten the distance between employees, but there are some things that it cannot replicate." ”
According to Apple's previous work plan, after opening the office, Apple will also adopt a hybrid office model. Employees return to the office three days a week, with the option to work from home on the other two days. Apple also plans to give employees up to a month a year to work from home, so that they can have more time to travel and reunite with their families.
| giants are crazy to "bottom up" to buy office buildings, just waiting for you to go back
While most employees are still working from home, tech giants have not stopped expanding their offices during the pandemic. According to a new report by U.S. real estate firm CBRE, technology companies hold 36 of the nation's 100 largest office leases in 2021, up from 18 in 2020 and equivalent to buying 11.4 million square feet of office space. CBRE also noted that office leasing in the U.S. grew by nearly 27 percent last year, with the tech sector being the biggest engine.
Google, for example, said last year it would spend $7 billion to build and expand offices and data centers across the country, including $2.1 billion to buy a Manhattan office building on the Hudson River in New York, and to expand office space in Atlanta, Silicon Valley, Boulder, Colorado, durham, North Carolina, and elsewhere. In January, Google also announced a $1 billion investment in building an office building in London.
Apple's office space in New York City in 2020 was only about 52,000 square feet, but by the end of last year, Apple's office space in New York City had expanded sixfold. In the past two years, Apple has also said it will build a campus near Raleigh, North Carolina, and significantly expand its office space in San Diego, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and other places.
Meta leased 730,000 square feet of office space in Manhattan, New York, in August 2020 and expanded in Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Bellevue and Washington in the past two years. In response, a Meta spokesperson said: "We will continue to develop our office space and look forward to more employees being able to return to our offices around the world after the pandemic." ”
Amazon is also one of the companies that has aggressively expanded its office buildings during the pandemic, announcing in August 2020 that it will invest $1.4 billion to expand its physical offices in six "technology centers" outside its headquarters in Seattle, including Dallas, Detroit, Denver, New York, Phoenix and San Diego. Amazon also expanded in Toronto and Vancouver last year, adding more than 3,000 jobs.
The starting point for the technology giants to hoard buildings is that they generally believe that most employees will return to the normal work of the office after the epidemic, and commercial real estate has been seriously affected by the epidemic, and the low point can lay the foundation for the company's future recovery and expansion.
There are many ways to meet |, and the office isn't the only option
While some tech giants are frantically buying buildings in the city, other tech companies have different ideas about how to return to offline work: they still have to meet, but they don't have to be in office buildings.
Earlier this month, for example, Salesforce's CEO announced on its website that it had established a new "Trailblazer Ranch" office campus, located in California's Redwood Forest, a 75-acre, tranquil resort-style ranch that will be used for onboarding, skills development, talent development, and face-to-face interaction between colleagues, and officially opened in March.
In addition to working, studying, and team building in the park, employees can also take courses such as nature walks, meditation, yoga, and group cooking, which is completely resort-style work. Salesforce said Trailblazer Ranch will help companies recruit and retain talent, providing another option to meet employees after the pandemic has separated for two years.
Ethos, an Internet insurance company that has previously been invested by Google and Accel, has nearly 400 employees who have worked almost remotely for the past two years, and recently, the company has exchanged and dined with its leadership team every Saturday in the backyard of the hotel or CTO's home. Many small tech startups have also recently allocated funds to teams to organize tour groups or rent Airbnb for group meetings and work exchanges.
Overall, as people gradually "lie flat" during the epidemic, the trend of technology companies returning to offline office is becoming more and more obvious. However, how to return to the future, it feels that the next Silicon Valley companies in order to grab talent, will be "rolled up" again.
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