Microsoft to reopen its headquarters from March 29

After closing its headquarters in lieu of the pandemic over a year ago, Microsoft on Monday announced that it would be reopening its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

“Currently, Microsoft work sites in 21 countries have been able to accommodate additional workers in our facilities – representing around 20% of our global employee population. On March 29, Microsoft will also start making this shift at our Redmond, Washington, headquarters and nearby campuses,” Microsoft’s executive vice president Kurt DelBene wrote in a blog post.

The company said that it is using a hybrid approach towards opening its workplaces to employees. “As we watch for progress against the virus in the region and continue to evaluate our guidance, employees who work at Redmond work sites or nearby campuses have the choice to return to those facilities or to continue working remotely, and also have the flexibility to do a mixture of both,” the DelBene added.

Microsoft said that opening its office in Redmond and nearby places is a part of the six-staged process that the company outlined last year. Stages 4 and 5 are the ones wherein more and more employees will be encouraged to work from home with appropriate safety measures. Right now, the company’s Redmond office is in stage four or the soft launch.

The company also said that it will give users the flexibility to split their time between working from home and its office. “Taking a pulse of thousands of employees who have returned to Microsoft work sites in some capacity, we’re observing employees are embracing the flexibility to split their time between a Microsoft office and home,” the Microsoft executive added.