Microsoft will restart its headquarters to more employees from March 29

March 23, 2021: Microsoft said Monday it would begin to bring back some employees to its headquarters in some capacity starting March 29.

Microsoft said it would allow employees who work at its Redmond, Washington, sites and nearby campuses to choose between returning to work full-time, continuing to work remotely, or implement a hybrid model.

“We’ve been closely monitoring local health data for months and have determined that the campus can safely accommodate more employees on-site while staying aligned to Washington state capacity limits,” the company said.

Currently, the company has work sites in 21 countries that can accommodate additional workers in its facilities, representing about 20% of its global workforce. The company said it has more than 160,000 employees.

Microsoft told employees last October and it will allow more flexibility to work from home, even after it’s safe to return to the office. The company said it planned to enable employees to work less than 50% of the time remotely. Employees can also request their managers’ approval to work remotely full time or potentially move to a new location.

After several months of office closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, employers are beginning to permanently shift to more hybrid work models or plan to forgo traditional office spaces entirely.

Spotify said it is adopting a “Work from Anywhere” model in February, which will allow employees to choose whether they want to be in the office full time, be at home full time, or a combination of the two. Salesforce also announced it would let employees choose whether they want to come into the office again, saying “the 9-to-5 workday is dead.” Twitter and Square are letting staffs work from home “forever.”