Uber employees will have the choice to return to the office when it reopens, or work remotely and receive a $500 stipend for home office equipment.
US ride-sharing company Uber has said it will allow corporate employees to continue working from home until “at least July 2021”. It joins Google, which also extended its remote working plans until next summer.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Uber’s offices will reopen sooner than other major tech companies. However, employees will be given the option to stay working remotely until next July or to return to the office when it reopens. Each member of staff will reportedly get $500 to pay for home office equipment.
Speaking to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Uber said: “As a company built on flexible working, we want to provide our team with flexibility, choice and longer-term clarity so they can plan ahead.”
The company also said that an individual’s choice to work from home or remotely would not impact any future performance reviews.
Around one-third of Uber’s employees work in the San Francisco area, where Covid-19 restrictions remain. It plans to leave its current headquarters on San Francisco’s Market St for a new building in the Mission Bay district.
‘There remains a lot unknown’
In May, Uber’s latest earnings report showed a $2.9bn loss in the first quarter of the year, with an 80pc drop in its April business compared with 2019. The company cut 6,700 jobs within a month, around one-quarter of its global workforce, as a way to dramatically cut costs and keep the business on track amid Covid-19 challenges.
On an earnings call after the Q1 results in May, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said: “There have been some hopeful signs. Cities are beginning to open up … but there remains a lot unknown. [It’s] clear that the city, states and countries will take action to reopen at different speeds and in different ways and there is a little consensus over the right way to do it.”
The company’s CFO, Nelson Chai, added that as business starts to bounce back, it’s unlikely that Uber will be recruiting to the same extent as it was before Covid-19. “I don’t think you’ll see us adding back at that same level,” Chai said.
Uber is due to release its Q2 results tomorrow (6 August).
