The payment company Square will allow its employees to work from home — forever.
Square said Monday it would allow people to work remotely permanently, even after the coronavirus pandemic subsides and shelter-in-place orders end, according to CNBC.
- Square has more than 3,000 employees. The company recently bought a 356,000 square-foot building in San Francisco earlier in 2020 for a few hundred employees to work, CNBC reports.
- “We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive,” a Square spokesperson told CNBC. “Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned a lot about what it takes for people to effectively perform roles outside of an office, and we will continue to learn as we go.”
The bigger picture:
- The decision comes about a week after Twitter announced it would allow employees to work from home forever, too. Both companies are owned by Jack Dorsey.
- In similar moves, Google and Facebook told employees to work from home until the end of 2020 to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
- According to a Bloomberg poll, 52% to 63% of respondents said they’d rather work from home than return to the office. A similar poll from Gallup found about half of respondents wanted to continue working remotely.
- “Some will happily accept these curtailments in order to be back in the physical fray of office life, and out of their own kitchens and living rooms,” according to Bloomberg. “For this group, there’s no substitute for face time with colleagues and the energy an office brings.”