Airbnb has announced an exciting new policy: all employees, at all levels, can work from home permanently without losing salary.
Company CEO Brian Chesky told employees the move comes after the success of remote work during the pandemic.
"Two years ago, the world was turned upside down. Our offices closed and we found ourselves working from our bedrooms, basements and home offices," he said.
“Despite everything, we had the most productive two years in our history. As incredible as these two years have been for Airbnb, I know it has been difficult for many of you.”
Airbnb's policy will work like this: Employees can live and work anywhere from their home or office, including the ability to travel anywhere in the country they work in affects their pay.
Employees who choose to change countries may see their compensation change, although this element of the policy may change in the future. However, employees can work from any country of their choice for up to 90 days per year.
Chesky said Airbnb will continue to work in a coordinated way, leveraging the best collaboration platforms, video conferencing services and more. It's a great show of support for the work that can be done without all employees being in the same physical space for a set number of hours.
write on the wall
Giant tech companies were among the first to pull out entirely during the pandemic, which makes sense given their field.
But as the pandemic begins to recede, Apple, Google, Microsoft and others are asking employees to return, first for a few days before working full time.
Others, like Meta, have gone the other way, encouraging employees to work and live anywhere, perhaps in line with Mark Zuckerberg's vision for the Metaverse.
With Microsoft Teams, Slack, and other remote work tools available, solutions are there for the complex problems of how to get a workforce moving in the same direction without being in the same space without affecting their overall work.
Whether Airbnb's model succeeds remains to be seen, but the company has been incredibly resilient during the pandemic, despite a drop in international travel, so it seems pretty good that the experiment is working.