Microsoft informed employees this week that they will have more flexibility to work from home, even after it’s safe to return to offices, a company spokesperson told CNBC on Friday.

微软一位发言人周五告诉美国消费者新闻与商业频道(CNBC),微软本周通知员工,他们将拥有更多居家办公的弹性,即使风险降低,可以回到办公室。

The new guidelines, previously reported by The Verge, allow all Microsoft employees to work remotely less than 50% of the time. Employees can also request approval from their managers to work remotely full time, or even move to a new location, with salaries adjusted based on geography.

此前The Verge网站报道,新的规定允许全体微软员工每周居家办公的时间不超过总工时的50%。员工也可以请经理批准全程在家办公,甚至搬往新地点办公,不过薪水要根据地理位置调整。

Microsoft last told U.S. employees to expect to work remotely until at least January 2021.

微软曾告诉美国员工,预计居家办公至少要持续到2021年1月。

“We shared guidelines internally this week to provide options for our employees to plan ahead for when we can return to the workplace safely,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. “Our goal is to evolve the way we work over time with intention—guided by employee input, data and our commitment to support individual work styles and business needs while living our culture.”

“本周,我们内部通知了此项规定,为员工提供了选择。他们可以提前计划何时能安全返回工作地点。”一位微软发言人在对CNBC的声明中称,“我们的目标是有计划地逐渐演变工作方式,以员工投入、数据及我们的承诺为导向,在体验我们文化的同时,支持个人工作风格及商务需求。

Microsoft referred to the new policy as a “hybrid model,” not an all-encompassing, permanent work-from-home rule that other tech companies such as Twitter have implemented. It’s closer to Facebook’s recent remote work policy, which allows employees to work from home with manager approval and move to a different location with adjusted salaries. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted in May that 50% of employees will be workingremotely within the next five to 10 years.

微软将新政策称为“混合模式”。和其他科技公司,例如推特不同的是,这种居家办公模式并不是全覆盖的永久性居家办公。Facebook最新的远程办公政策与此项政策更为相似,允许员工在得到经理批准的情况下居家办公,还可以迁往不同的办公地点,薪水相应调整。Facebook的CEO马克·扎克伯格5月预测,接下来的5到10年中,将会有超过50%的员工远程办公。

Some Microsoft jobs, such as data center management roles, will still require employees to show up to work in person. The new policy applies to each employee differently, depending on what their job is。

微软的某些岗位,例如数据中心管理岗,仍需员工到公司上班。根据员工的工种,此项新政策的对每位员工的适用范围不尽相同。

Microsoft has more than 166,000 employees, according to its latest reported data.

根据微软最新发布的数据,微软员工数量超过16.6万名。