Airbnb Inc. said on Thursday that its employees would be permanently able to work from anywhere. This would include their homes, the office, or while traveling in different countries.
Additionally, the company also said it would work with governments and travel destinations to build out support for people living abroad for an extended period while working.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky took to Twitter to share a slew of measures that would enable employees to do what “works best for them.” He tweeted, “today, we’re announcing that Airbnb employees can live and work anywhere.”
Today, we’re announcing that Airbnb employees can live and work anywhere.
Our design for working at Airbnb has 5 key features:
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) April 29, 2022
Airbnb told its 6,000 employees on Thursday that they would have the option to permanently work remotely, joining a growing number of companies that have ditched return-to-office plans, including Zillow and PwC. Airbnb also told its U.S. employees that they could move anywhere in the country without a reduction in their compensation.
Here is a list of what employees have in store as the new system kicks in:
Additionally, sharing how the new work features will work out in real-time. Chesky tweeted, “the design for working at Airbnb has 5 key features:
1. You can work from home or the office—whatever works best for you
2. You can move anywhere in the country, like from San Francisco to Nashville, and your compensation won’t change
3. You have the flexibility to live and work in 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location
4. We’ll meet up regularly for team gatherings. Most employees will connect in person every quarter for about a week at a time (some more frequently)
5. To pull this off, we’ll operate off of a multi-year roadmap with two major product releases a year, which will keep us working in a highly coordinated way.”
Remote Work Theory
Airbnb’s remote-work policy is the latest in its efforts to encourage people to use Airbnb listings as pseudo-offices. About 10 percent of American workers are still remote, down from one-third in May 2020 at the height of pandemic lockdowns.
Last summer, the company introduced Live Anywhere on Airbnb, a year-long program that gave 12 people the chance to travel the globe while working from Airbnb locations.
Taking another tack, some tech companies, like Google and Microsoft, have tried in recent weeks to create office environments that are as alluring as vacation spots, offering games like corn hole, along with fried chicken and wine tastings for employees going back to their commutes.
