Financial services company Square (SQ +0.40%) announced on Monday that it would permanently allow many of its employees to work from home, even after the pandemic ends. The move comes just a week after a similar announcement was made by social media platform Twitter (TWTR +0.00%). The two companies share chief executive Jack Dorsey.
"We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive," a spokesperson for the fintech said. "Moving forward, Squares will be able to work from home permanently, even once offices begin to reopen. 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."
Image source: Square.
The new policy will apply to all workers who can do their jobs remotely. Other employees, including security personnel, facilities maintenance, and those who keep servers running, will still be required to go into the office. Others workers will be given the option once "it's safe to return." Neither Square nor Twitter has yet to provide a timeline for their physical offices to reopen, though they will remain closed through at least September.
In a similar announcement posted on its blog last week, a spokesperson for Twitter said the company was "uniquely positioned" to move quickly and allow its employees to work remotely, given the decentralized and distributed nature of its workforce. "The past few months have proven we can make that work."
Employees have been working remotely since early March, when both companies instituted mandatory stay-at-home policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The move came about the same time other companies instituted similar policies, asking any employees that could work from home to do so.
