During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world have entered states of emergency. Hundreds of millions of people are working under stay-at-home policies. In the new environment, remote work is king. It seems Microsoft’s employees will have to get used to the work-at-home conditions.
According to Business Insider, the company has informed employees already working at home that they will continue to do so until October. It is worth noting some Microsoft employees continue to go to work, but most are not working at home.
Also, the extension also only includes employees in the United States, where 85,000 of Microsoft’s 144,000 global workforce are located. On Monday, the company circulated an internal notice telling staff they can remain at home even when the government lifts stay-at-home orders.
“When restrictions lift, working from home will remain optional through October unless employees are in an essential role or local authorities mandate otherwise,” the spokesperson said.
Microsoft is headquartered in Washington, which has lockdown orders in place until May 31. However, stay-at-home orders are fluid and there’s a chance the government will extend them beyond that date.
Azure Expansion
Last month, Microsoft announced it is expanding its Azure cloud services to cope with increased demand during COVID-19.
o help handle the load, Microsoft is boosting its worldwide data center output and says it is adding more resource limits to new Azure customers.
On the Microsoft Azure blog, Microsoft says how it is managing “business continuity with Azure”. This includes helping customers complete urgent work and continuing to expand Azure alongside ongoing demands.
