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Smoke and heat make providing service at restaurants even more difficult.
Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest private employer, has extended its workfromhome option for all workers until at least August 2021, the company said in a blog post Wednesday.
Employees, which include over 9,000 in San Francisco, were previously allowed to work remotely until the end of 2020. Salesforce joins other tech giants like Facebook, Google and Uber, which all extended working from home until the end of June as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.
The company occupies three towers in San Francisco’s Transbay district, including the city’s tallest building, Salesforce Tower. Downtown merchants worry that the prolonged absence of office workers will cripple the local economy, and many stores and restaurants in the area remain shut.
Salesforce will offer an additional $250 for office supplies to each worker, following a $250 allocation earlier this year. Parents will receive an additional six weeks of paid time off, and parents and guardians can work from home indefinitely in locations where schools are closed and students are learning remotely, the
company said.
Salesforce said offices would reopen based on local health orders. In San Francisco, nonessential workers were briefly allowed to return to offices in June, but offices were closed again after the city was placed on the state watch list last month.
There is currently no timeline for when offices will reopen for nonessential workers.
“The safety of our employees and communities remains paramount. And while we continue to work on plans to reopen our offices safely, the timing of when we bring employees back will be unique to each office — and we will continue to make those decisions in a way that’s consistent with local government guidelines and the advice of our medical experts and local leadership team,” wrote Brent Hyder, president and chief people officer of Salesforce.
When offices reopen, Salesforce plans to have temperature checks on each floor, mandatory masks and workers separated by 6 feet. The company has leased an unbuilt tower at 564 Howard St. and also bought a historic building next to its headquarters for $145 million in March, which could lead to more office growth in the Transbay area.
In April, Salesforce canceled the inperson portion of its 171,000person Dreamforce convention and shifted to an online event instead.