Microsoft is not going to fully reopen its offices till September 7 at the least

Microsoft is pushing back the full reopening of its offices, which is supposed to be the company’s Stage 6 phase of its hybrid workplace plan, till September 7 at least. Initially the plan was to reopen its offices by July.

“Based on our continued consultation with health and data experts, we’ve shifted our earliest date for the full opening of our U.S. worksites to September 7, 2021. We continue to review the situation on a local basis in each region/country/state where we work and will adjust dates by country as needed,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge.

“We believe this date will afford additional flexibility for employees to make summer plans, and we’ll continue to keep you updated if the date moves out,” said Microsoft’s executive vice president Kurt DelBene while explaining in an email the decision to delay the full reopening.

The email also noted that Microsoft will give regional office leaders the leeway to further push back that date, depending on the health and safety conditions in their local area.

Microsoft has already started to reopen its offices in a limited capacity.

Earlier in March this year, Microsoft noted that roughly 20% of its staff worldwide were back in the office, and they had slowly started to reopen their Redmond and Seattle, Washington-based headquarters on March 29.

Despite all this, a shift to a remote workplace for Microsoft seems to be a permanent change to the company’s culture. Going forward, Microsoft plans to make the option to work from home for up to 50% of the week a standard for most employees. There is also going to be an option to discuss more substantial shifts to remote work with managers.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think, live, and work in new ways,” Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, explained in a note last October.

“We will offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs, and ensuring we live our culture,” Hogan added.