Originally published 2020-05-15.
Yes, it really happened. On Tuesday 12 May 2020, a few weeks into the first coronavirus lockdowns, Twitter told its staff that anyone whose job could be done from home could keep doing it that way permanently, even after the pandemic was over. Chief executive Jack Dorsey set out the plan in an internal email first reported by BuzzFeed News, and the company confirmed it to NBC News.
The promise lasted about two and a half years. After Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, one of his first messages to employees ended default remote work. Here is what the original policy said, why Twitter could offer it, how other tech giants compared, and what the reversal tells us about remote work promises in general.
What Twitter announced in May 2020
The message was simple. Staff in roles that did not need a physical office could choose to work from home "in perpetuity", as NBC put it. People who preferred the office could go back once it was judged safe, and the buildings would reopen with extra health precautions. A company spokesperson summed up the offer in one line:
"If our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen."
The announcement came with a timetable. Dorsey said the offices were unlikely to open again before September 2020, and all in-person company events were cancelled for the rest of that year. Jobs that need physical presence, such as maintaining servers or running the buildings themselves, were never part of the choice.
The key word is choice. Twitter was not closing its offices. It was saying that location would no longer be a condition of the job for people whose work allowed it.
Why Twitter was able to move first
Twitter had an advantage over many larger companies: it had already been spreading its workforce across several cities and testing what it called a distributed model before the virus arrived. When lockdowns hit in March 2020, it was among the first big tech firms to send staff home, and the company said the following months had shown the arrangement could work.
There was also a practical side. Twitter's product is software, its staff mostly worked on laptops, and its offices sat in some of the most expensive cities in the world, led by San Francisco. Letting people live elsewhere could widen the pool of people it could hire and, in time, reduce what it spent on space.
Dorsey himself had a reputation for unusual leadership choices. Around the same time he pledged about $1 billion of his shares in Square, his payments company, to COVID-19 relief and other causes through a fund called Start Small, roughly 28% of his wealth. That giving was widely reported, and it added to the sense that he was willing to make big, public bets. For a very different kind of executive gesture, see our story about the CEO of Japan Airlines who rode the bus to work.
A correction on political ads
Some reports from the time suggested that Twitter would still carry party political adverts during the 2020 US presidential election. That is not right. Twitter banned political advertising worldwide in November 2019 and kept the ban through the 2020 campaign. The ban was lifted only in 2023, after the change of ownership.
How Facebook and Google compared
Other giants were more cautious. According to NBC's report on the day, Google expected most of its staff to keep working from home until 2021, with a smaller number returning from early summer 2020. Facebook planned to start reopening offices after the 4 July weekend, while letting those who could work from home stay there until the following year.
So the difference was not about who sent people home. Almost every large tech firm did that. The difference was that Twitter talked about a permanent, open-ended option, while the others framed home working as a temporary emergency measure with an end date. Many companies, including some that raised pay to keep employees happy, watched closely to see whether productivity held up.
The reversal under Elon Musk
Dorsey stepped down as chief executive in November 2021, and Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter in October 2022. Within days the new owner made his position plain. In his first email to all staff, reported on 10 November 2022, Musk said employees were expected in the office for at least 40 hours a week, and that remote work would be approved only case by case, according to Al Jazeera.
The change landed on a workforce that had already been cut sharply, and on people who had moved away from San Francisco on the strength of the 2020 promise. It showed something easy to forget: a company policy, even one described as "forever", is still a policy. It can be changed by new management, a new owner or new economic pressures. It is not the same as a clause in an individual employment contract.
What this means if you work remotely
The Twitter story is a useful case study for anyone weighing a remote job or an offer to go fully remote with a current employer.
- Get it in writing. A company-wide announcement is not the same as a remote clause in your own contract. If your home location matters to you, ask whether it can be written into your terms.
- Watch for ownership changes. Mergers, buyouts and new chief executives are the moments when flexible arrangements are most often reviewed.
- Think before relocating far away. Moving to a cheaper city can be a great decision, but have a plan for what you would do if regular office attendance became a requirement again.
- Stay visible. Remote staff tend to do best when their work and results are easy for managers to see, through clear written updates and regular check-ins.
- Know your local rules. In some countries employees have a legal right to request flexible working. That is a right to ask and to get a fair answer, not a guarantee of a yes.
Common myths about the "work from home forever" policy
Myth: Twitter closed its offices. It did not. The offices stayed, and staff could return when they reopened. The policy only removed the requirement to come in for those who could work elsewhere.
Myth: every Twitter employee could stay home. Only people in roles that did not need physical presence had the choice.
Myth: the policy was a legal guarantee. It was a corporate decision. As 2022 showed, a new owner could overturn it with a single email.
Myth: remote work ended everywhere after the pandemic. Many employers did bring staff back, at least for part of the week, but hybrid and fully remote jobs remain common in technology and other office-based fields. The Twitter case is better read as a warning about relying on one company's promise than as a verdict on remote work itself.
Why the story still matters
In May 2020 Twitter's announcement felt like a glimpse of the future of office work, and it did push other companies to think harder about flexibility. Its later reversal made it a lesson too. For workers, the takeaway is to enjoy flexibility where it exists, but to protect yourself by understanding exactly what you have been promised and by whom.
Sources: NBC News: Twitter employees can work from home forever, CEO says; Al Jazeera, 10 November 2022: Elon Musk, in first email to Twitter staff, ends remote work; Wikipedia: Jack Dorsey.
COMMENTS