Microsoft to Keep Offices Closed Until 2021

With the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s not exactly news that many businesses have been attempting (wherever possible) to minimize the number of workers (or visitors) entering their premises. This has, of course, been achieved by various means. These include ‘furloughing’ staff (essentially giving them a partially paid extended holiday) or, in other cases, allowing them to continue to work ‘as normal’ directly from their homes.

While Microsoft has been following a similar process since around April, in a report via TechSpot, it is understood that they are currently planning to keep their physical office locations ‘partially closed’ until at least the start of 2021.

Microsoft Offices Closed until 2021

As part of a leaked internal memo, it is understood that Microsoft is currently operating under a 6-phase plan regarding how they deal with the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Closed
• Mandatory working from home
• Working from home – Strongly recommended but not obligatory
• Soft opening
• Open with restrictions
• Business as usual

At the time of writing, it’s understood that Microsoft is currently on phase two but may be considering relaxing things to phase three. Whatever the case, however, sources have suggested that Microsoft is not planning on its physical office locations to be ‘back to normal’ until at least January 19th, 2021.

What Do We Think?

With the current situation clearly not being ideal for anyone, it’s a particular issue for companies as large and substantial as Microsoft. It is, after all, very hard to coordinate teams in the hundreds or thousands when they’re all mostly sat at their desks at home.

That being said though, despite some hope that the ‘worst’ of the Coronavirus pandemic may be over, it seems pretty clear that Microsoft is still (probably rather sensibly) taking a more cautious approach.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!