ViacomCBS to have employees work from home until 2021

ViacomCBS announced Thursday that its employees will continue to work remotely through the end of the year as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in several states. 

“While we were hopeful we’d be able to bring a small number of employees back to U.S. office locations beginning in August, due to recent spikes it’s clear this will not happen,” ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish wrote in a memo first obtained by Fox Business.

“In fact, at this point, we are assuming the majority of employees will not be returning to U.S. offices this year,” he said.

Bakish added that “having fewer people commuting and gathering is best” while noting the New York-based company has “proven how well we can work remotely as an organization.”

He said ViacomCBS would “continue to focus our time and resources on supporting our business-critical employees who need to work from facilities, as well as enabling our return to production – which generally has to be done in person and is the lifeblood of our business.”

Several large media and social media companies have announced their intention to have most employees work from home for the rest of 2020 due to the pandemic, including CNN, Facebook and Twitter.

The pandemic has fueled work-from-home technology and team meetings over video.

For example, Zoom Communications, a video conferencing company, has seen its stock rise more than 250 percent this year as a result of the need for team meetings being conducted remotely.