Microsoft postpones reopening indefinitely

Microsoft is postponing its return to the office for an unspecified amount of time.

The tech giant was the final major tech company pinning its hopes on a 2021 return to the office, but said in a blog post Thursday that the delta variant had "upended that goal."

"Like many companies, we planned to fully reopen our headquarters in Redmond, Washington on Oct. 4," the blog post reads. "It wasn't the first time we've had to rethink a major course of action."

Unlike most other big tech companies, Microsoft has not publicly set a date for its reopening. In a statement emailed to Protocol, the company said it would fully reopen each U.S. office once that location meets certain health criteria and local guidelines, "rather than forecasting a potential date for the full re-opening of our U.S. worksites."

Specifically, each of Microsoft's U.S. offices will reopen once COVID-19 has stopped being "a significant burden" on the surrounding community and acts "more like an endemic virus such as the seasonal flu," the company said.

Whenever that happens, the company will give workers a 30-day notice to return to the office.

In recent weeks Google, Uber, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Lyft have all said they would delay their reopening targets until early 2022, with most companies naming January as a goal.

Intel and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are two other companies that have delayed a full reopening but have not set a target date.