Airbnb Employees Never Going Back To Work?
Airbnb employees now have the option to stay home forever and still get paid.
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The company Airbnb has announced it will allow its employees to permanently work remotely which means most of the Airbnb employees will never have to return to an office again. “You can work from home or the office whatever works best for you,” the CEO of Airbnb Brian Chesky said. Airbnb had planned previously to have their employees return to the office in September 2022, but Chesky said the new policy was developed based on the fact that Airbnb had its most productive two-year period ever while the Airbnb employees worked from home during the COVID pandemic.
According to CNN Business, Airbnb told their employees on Thursday that they can permanently work remotely and have the option to relocate anywhere within the country they reside in. Doing so won’t have any negative impact on the Airbnb employee’s current compensation. Meaning it will not adjust the employee’s current salaries downward if an employee opts to move to a city where the cost of living is lower or on the flip side, increase the employee’s salaries if they choose to move where the cost of living is higher.
In a lengthy email to Airbnb employees, Chesky outlined the company’s new policies, procedures, and expectations for those employees that want to continue to work remotely. He noted that permanent flexibility will allow the Airbnb company to hire and continue to retain the best employees in the world, rather than simply those who are within a certain commuting radius around set office locations. Airbnb has 6,000 employees globally, with more than 3,000 in the United States.
Chesky told his employees to consult with managers ahead of relocating about the necessary expectations and added that given the complexities surrounding international moves, the Airbnb company would not be able to support those types of relocations yet. In contrast to the overarching sentiment, however, Chesky also noted that a small number of employee roles will still be required to be in the office or at a specific location to perform their job responsibilities.
Chesky also provided a detailed argument that despite the efficiency of using Zoom for Airbnb company meetings, it must be combined with a much-needed, meaningful human connection. He noted that this can only happen when people come together and work alongside one another. What this means for the Airbnb employees is they will still be required to connect in person for about a week once every quarter.
Airbnb is another one of the latest companies to offer a permanent remote work option for their employees after Twitter. Twitter previously enacted the same policy and expectations for its employees back in 2020, by not requiring its employees to come back to the office. Twitter human resources chief Jennifer Christie stated, “The future of work is offering employees more optionality.”
In January of this year, Airbnb CEO Chesky announced that he would love to live in Airbnbs, staying in other people’s homes that are listed on the Airbnb platform so he could jump from city to city every few weeks. He also said that anticipates the biggest travel trend in 2022 will be people spreading out to thousands of towns and cities, staying for weeks, months, or even entire seasons at a time. Holiday travel plans could utilize Airbnb instead of overpriced hotels.
The policy update is perhaps a no-brainer for Airbnb as Chesky has become a living and breathing marketing campaign for remote work based on a trend his company, of course, would stand to benefit from. Following the initial, devastating impact on its business in the earliest months of the COVID pandemic, this latest company decision comes as a delightful breath of fresh air.
