With COVID-19 still spreading across the US, Microsoft is giving up on trying to predict when it’ll fully re-open company offices to employees.
The software giant originally planned on a full re-opening for Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, this month before pushing that back to no earlier than Oct. 4. But on Thursday, Microsoft said it's scraping efforts to peg an office re-opening to a specific date.
“Given the uncertainty of COVID-19, we’ve decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening of our US work sites in favor of opening US work sites as soon as we’re able to do so safely based on public health guidance,” Microsoft Corporate VP Jared Spataro wrote in a blog post.
“The evolving (COVID-19) Delta variant is compelling many of us to adjust plans for reopening worksites. It’s a stark reminder that this is the new normal. Our ability to come together will ebb and flow,” he added.
Other companies, including Google and Facebook, have decided to push back asking all employees to return to offices until January. On Thursday, Intel also announced an event it had planned for late October in San Francisco was instead going fully virtual.
Companies such as Microsoft have been requiring employees and visitors to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination when entering corporate offices. When Microsoft does decide to re-open corporate offices, the company plans on offering employees a “30-day transition period” so they can prepare a return to their workspaces.