News

Silicon Valley firms to keep their offices closed despite ease in restrictions

Seems like big tech firms are in no hurry to open up their offices. Several of San Francisco Bay Area’s largest technology companies including Twitter and Google plan to keep their offices largely closed for months more despite the government allowing them on Tuesday to be opened in a limited capacity.

As reported by Rappler, taking into account declining coronavirus infections, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties eased guidelines that had kept most office buildings closed for the last year except to crucial security and support staff.

Starting Wednesday, companies are allowed to open up their offices for up to a quarter of their capacity.

San Francisco is going to come alive,” Mayor London Breed told reporters. “When we start to reopen, more and more people are going to want to return to work and want to be around other folks.

But Silicon Valley companies that committed last year to allowing workers to stay home until this summer or indefinitely said that they stood by their timelines.

They cited their own analyses of public health data, other safety considerations, and workers’ preferences. Adoption of vaccines, which in California are accessible to only the most vulnerable populations, is also a factor but a smaller one.

Networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc and file-storage service Dropbox Inc said their mandatory work from home policies would remain in effect until June, while Box Inc said its reopening is still scheduled for September.

Pinterest is not eyeing a significant reopening until at least August, Alphabet’s Google until September, and DocuSign Inc not before October.

Twitter, Adobe, PayPal, Twilio, Yelp, and Zoom also will stay closed despite what Breed and other local government officials described as a move to the “orange tier” from the “red tier” of California lockdown restrictions.

Breed’s spokesman Jeff Cretan said San Francisco officials expect smaller and mid-sized companies to be the first to return.

Sponsored
Hamza Zakir

Platonist. Humanist. Unusually edgy sometimes.

Leave a Comment
Share
Published by
Hamza Zakir

Recent Posts

Indian Army Granted Authority to Directly Takedown Social Media Content

The Indian Army has been granted direct authority to manage social media content concerning its…

19 mins ago

NUST Achieves Global Recognition with 43 Researchers Among World’s Top 2% Scientists

In an extraordinary accomplishment for Pakistani academia, 43 researchers from the National University of Sciences…

1 hour ago

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Govt Ready to Acquire PIA with Bid Exceeding Rs10bn

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has officially informed the federal government of its intention to…

2 hours ago

PTA Cautions Public on Illegal and Unlicensed Forex Trading Platforms

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued a stern advisory, warning citizens against investing in…

2 hours ago

Record Emigration: Economic Instability Forces Pakistan’s Best and Brightest to Depart

Economic challenges are prompting skilled workers to leave Pakistan, resulting in a significant talent drain…

5 hours ago

Russia’s Fine on Google Exceeds World’s Economy

A Russian court has fined Google for blocking state-run media channels on YouTube, imposing a…

1 day ago