Facebook joins growing list of companies delaying plans to reopen offices
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As the contagious Delta variant continues to reach across the United States, more and more companies are delaying plans to reopen offices.
By the numbers: A recent survey of 1,000 HR professionals by the Society for Human Resource Management and Lucid found that half of U.S. organizations are worried about Delta. Some corporate players have started mandating vaccines for employees in an attempt to combat the variant.
Between the lines, via Axios' Erica Pandey: All the botched return-to-work plans are telling us that the Delta variant could send us back into the thick of the pandemic.
Worth noting: Scott Gottlieb, former head of the FDA, told CNBC that October, rather than September, would be a more "prudent" time to bring employees back to the office.
The companies
Facebook has told its employees they don't need to return to offices until January 2022 after initially planning to reopen at about 50% capacity by September. Workers returning to U.S. offices will need to be vaccinated and wear masks.
Target, which had planned to roll out a hybrid back-to-office model in September, has told headquarters workers they can work from home for the rest of the year. The company is gradually reopening offices, which any HQ staff member can access starting Sept. 20, according to a spokesperson.
Apple has delayed its planned September return to the office by at least a month, according to Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal.
Google is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18 instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1.
Amazon has pushed its reopening date from September to January 2022. (For corporate employees, that is — warehouse workers basically never left.)
Twitter closed its San Francisco and New York offices only two weeks after the company reopened. The company has paused future office reopenings at the moment.
Lyft has pushed its office return date to February 2022.
BlackRock will now reopen in October rather than September.
Wells Fargo has postponed its back-to-office return to October, one month later than planned.
U.S. Bank will wait until later this fall to bring employees back to the office, delaying its initial plan to return in person after Labor Day.
WME, a Los Angeles-based talent management agency, closed down its office for at least a week, just after reopening on July 12 for the first time in more than a year.
Asana, a software company that originally planned in-person returns in September, has told employees that offices in San Francisco and New York will reopen no earlier than February 2022.
Editor's note: This story has been updated.
