Home office as a permanent solution: Tech companies send employees into digital nomadism

Around 200,000 employees of the Google parent Alphabet should work from home until at least the end of June 2021 due to Corona. In Silicon Valley, the example could go to school: Facebook is already calculating the advantages of permanent home work. Did the virus kill the office?

While many employers are successively ordering their employees back into the office, depending on the national and regional pandemic situation, Google is the first Silicon Valley company that is now clearly being extended: The mother Alphabet wants its employees at least until the end of June 2021 keep in home office – six months longer than previously planned. It looks like the decision could make a difference. Facebook and Twitter are on the best way to turn the emergency into a permanent solution.

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Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai wants, according to the "Wall Street Journal", above all to give his employees planning security for childcare. It is still unclear whether schooling in the United States will resume after the summer vacation. "I hope (the extension) offers you the flexibility you need to balance work and family life in the next twelve months," he said in a memo to his employees. The announcement applies to all around 200,000 employees worldwide. "We are still learning a lot from our experience working from home and will use this knowledge for our approach to the future of work at Google," it continues.

The IT giants have had a positive overall record of working from home over the past few months, it seems. The corona-related switch to home office worked, the employees worked well for four months outside of their offices – despite simultaneous childcare and other distractions. Google's announcement increases the pressure on the industry to also formulate a broader pandemic strategy and define what the future of work should look like. Facebook and Twitter have not yet given appointments, but they are also thinking in the longer term.

Rentals tumble in San Francisco

Half of the Facebook employees would probably work from home in the next five to ten years, predicts CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Twitter has given employees the freedom to choose where they want to work in the future. If you want, you can stay in the home office indefinitely. It's obvious: Corona has given digital nomadism a powerful boost.

The prospect that more and more people will be able to freely decide about their jobs in the future has already left its mark on the real estate market not far from Silicon Valley. Without attendance it is worthwhile for the employees to migrate to the cheaper surrounding area. Because many packed their bags, rents in San Francisco, the most expensive housing market in the United States, fell significantly – and the vacancy rate rose.

However, the bill of many who have swarmed out to have more money in the household budget by moving to a cheaper neighborhood will not work. Because the corporations not only check the different working models, but also the salaries. More home office means fewer offices that have to be kept, which means savings potential. Facebook has already made it clear that salaries will be adjusted to the cost of living. For those moving out of Palo Alto or other expensive residential areas in the tech giant's catchment area, this means wage cuts.

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As Zuckerberg announced in a video message, he wants to take it seriously from January. And he leaves no doubt that it will have "serious consequences" for those who cheat at home. To justify it, it is said that Facebook has always had a "market-oriented approach to remuneration", depending on the location. This practice will be extended to homeworkers. Messaging service Slack has also announced such salary adjustments.

However, the incentive for workers to work from home could decrease. Labor market experts are fundamentally critical of inequalities in pay for the same work. To pay one engineer more for the same job, the other less, is "tricky," quotes the Wall Street Journal, MIT professor Thomas Kochan. This is probably one of the reasons why the office may remain dear to you in the future.

The office is dead, long live the office

In addition, experiences with the home office cannot be generalized. The past four months have also shown that projects often take longer. Even the US startup Chef Robotics recently canceled an appointment because the scattered engineers from the home office had not been able to integrate and test software and hardware. Hiring, familiarization and training of employees are also tougher. And also the estrangement of colleagues from each other and that of employees from superiors is on the negative list and is not necessarily conducive to the work.

The experiences of the individual industries also differ. Financial service providers, for example, find it more difficult to make the switch. "In the digital age, speed is key, and working from home will slow down the process," said Joseph Biasi, an analyst with CoStar. The jobs at the tech giants are apparently more suitable for home offices. Peter P. Kowalczuk, president of Canon Solutions America, a subsidiary of the copier and camera manufacturer Canon, which employs approximately 15,000 people in the United States, has also had negative experiences. Employees are free to choose whether to return to their offices. 50 percent are now back on site. Many are tired of it, it is said. "We are a personal business," Kowalczuk told The Wall Street Journal. "I don't think offices are dead."

. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Google (t) Facebook (t) Twitter (t) Alphabet Inc. (t) Silicon Valley (t) IT Industry (t) Mark Zuckerberg (t) Real Estate (t) Home Office