Slack Technologies Inc. is offering its employees the option to work from home permanently, along with extending its coronavirus-related office closures past Sept. 1.
In a blog post, Robby Kwok, senior vice-president of people, said the company plans to hire workers who are permanently remote. It’s also looking to revamp the design of its offices for the eventual return to work to reduce in-person contact.
Read: Shopify moving majority of employees to permanent remote work
“In the past, the physical office was the default space for work — from grabbing a small room to check in with your manager, to convening a large group to brainstorm on a whiteboard, to catching colleagues in the hall to hear about their weekend plans,” he wrote. “While we’re still navigating exactly how and when our offices reopen, we expect them to look quite different: fewer amenities such as catered lunches and coffee bars, less focus on in-person meetings with colleagues and more options for focused solo work.”
Kwok noted that curtailing or eliminating in-office amenities would affect Slack’s contractor and vendor network. “This is a responsibility we take very seriously, which is why we’re committing to pay all Slack contractors through the end of 2020.”
Other technology giants have announced plans to allow employees to permanently work from home, including Twitter Inc. and Shopify Inc. Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, is giving all of its employees a US$1,000 work-from-home allowance.
Read: Google to pay work-from-home allowance to all global employees