Shopify CEO Says Era of Office Centricity Is Over; Most Staff to Permanently Work From Home

The CEO of Canadian e-commerce firm Shopify declared on Thursday the end of “office centricity” and decided to keep company offices closed till 2021, allowing most employees to work remotely on a permanent basis after that.

Ottawa-based Shopify, which briefly became Canadas most valuable company earlier this month, had more than 5,000 employees and contractors worldwide as of December.

“As of today, Shopify is digital by default,” Tobi Lutke, who is also the founder of Shopify, said in a tweet. “We will keep our offices closed until 2021 so that we can rework them for this new reality.

“Office centricity is over.”

Shopifys move comes as businesses adjust to the impact of COVID-19, which is also expected to reshape the future of office spaces after the pandemic retreats.

Shopify becomes the first major Canadian company to allow staff to work from home permanently, even as many large manufacturing companies, including Bombardier, gradually bring back some of their workers following reopening plans announced by Canadian provinces.

U.S. tech firms Square and Twitter also recently allowed employees to continue working from home permanently.

Facebook and Alphabets Google are allowing most of their employees to work remotely until the end of this year.

Shopify, which has a market value of C$119 billion (US$85 billion, is a seen by investors and analysts as a domestic success story iRead More – Source