Airbnb commits to fully remote workplace: ‘Live and work anywhere’

It's a philosophy that most of the business world has been forced to adopt, committing to full-time remote work for most employees and a handful of perks like 90 days of international travel. It is a strong, simple policy that few large companies have had the guts to match.

In an email to employees posted to the company's website, Brian Chesky outlined the new policy, summing it up in five points:

• You can work from home or the office
• You can move anywhere in the country you work in and your compensation won’t change
• You have the flexibility to travel and work around the world
• We’ll meet up regularly for gatherings
• We’ll continue to work in a highly coordinated way

They're pretty self-explanatory, but just to be clear, let's run them down.

All employees can work from wherever they want, except for a small number of roles, for which presence in an office or location is required.

If you stay in the country, your pay won't change. Wherever you go in the U.S., you will get the same pay, and one hopes it will be enough for you to live in a small town. We won't be able to support those permanently if you decide to do that.

If you want to stay in Lisbon for a while, you can work from a villa for a week or two after your vacation. Why not? It is possible that remote work visas are not available for those areas. They are adding partners to a big list over here.

Chesky says they'll meet up regularly even though they have a lot of employees. That's even more than that! They will have limited off-sites in 2022, which is smart, but next year you can gather in person every quarter for about a week at a time.

The last point seems superfluous and self-congratulatory, but it is probably good to officially note that the general shape of working at the company won't change due to this new policy.

Tech companies are looking at more flexible work models when offices reopen

Many companies have announced tentative policies that will be reviewed in a few months. The hybrid model where employees work from the office a few days, then from home the rest of the time is talked about a lot. This could be the best or worst of both worlds depending on where you work. It suggests a lack of decisiveness in leadership. Among the early users of full time remote work was the micro-blogging site, which may soon be under new leadership.

There is a safety and liability question. After they mandated a return to the office, they lifted their vaccine mandate. Do not die for this company, or any company for that matter, as someone noted at the time.

Maybe Airbnb will be the first company to use this type of fully remote workplace, and all the other companies will be watching and waiting for the company to start paying more taxes. The policy's simplicity and flexibility may outweigh any new troubles it creates.