Square has announced that some employees can work from home permanently, even after their offices reopen across the country.
The move will affect many of the mobile payments tech firm's 500 St. Louis-based employees, who normally work at the company's office in the Cortex district. Square, headquartered in San Francisco, has operated remotely since March, when state and local governments began to restrict office capacity to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
"We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive,” a Square representative wrote in an email. “We’ve learned a lot about what it takes for people to effectively perform roles outside of an office, and we will continue to learn as we go."
Some, like security and facilities workers, will not have the option to work remotely. But workers on product, development and other teams who can operate from home will be able to decide where they work.
The company, cofounded by St. Louis natives Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, is in the process of increasing its St. Louis-based workforce.
Square signed a 15-year lease last year to move into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s former headquarters building downtown. The tech company announced then that it intended to increase its local workforce from 500 to more than 1,000 employees.
The decision to allow long-term remote work has so far not affected plans to move into that larger building, according to the project’s developer, StarWood Group. The development company founded by McKelvey is currently working to renovate the 280,000-square-foot building.
StarWood Group managing partner John Berglund said construction has not been delayed by the coronavirus outbreak. He said he expects Square will be able to start moving into the building on North Tucker Boulevard by spring 2021.
“I think people still want a desk, even if they’re just coming in a little bit. They want a place to call home,” he said.
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