Returning to Yelp Offices in 2021

Update as of September 9: We are continuing to assess our reopening plans and safety protocols to reflect the latest information on the pandemic, as such we postponed our Phoenix office reopening pilot to September 15 and our London office reopening to late October. You can learn more about our latest reopening updates here.

Over the last year, we learned that we can operate successfully as a distributed remote workforce, which we attribute to the tenacity of Yelp employees. While we plan to continue to operate as a distributed workforce when we return to the office, we know that some employees are looking forward to having flexible access to an office. With the encouraging pace of vaccinations in the U.S. and the U.K. and drop in COVID-19 cases, we are confident in our ability to safely reopen our offices by the end of the year, and we have shared with employees our timeline for returning to the office in each of our current locations. 

Back in February, I shared our plans for what the future of work at Yelp would look like. Our remote-first model gives Yelp employees greater flexibility to live where they want to live, and work where they feel most effective. From our internal surveys, we found that most employees want to be in the office two or three days a week. Coming into the office will be completely optional unless an employee’s role specifically requires it — if an employee isn’t comfortable with working in an office setting for whatever reason, they are welcome to continue working from home. 

Starting in August, we will pilot our office reopening concept in Phoenix with about 150 employees. This will be our prototype for creating a safe office environment through our remote-first plan. Following the pilot in Phoenix, we will begin to reopen our other offices, starting with our London office in September, followed by Chicago, Hamburg, New York City, Toronto, and Washington D.C. throughout the fall. We expect to reopen our San Francisco headquarters in November.

While we continue to assess what our reimagined office environment will look like, equity for our employees will stay top-of-mind as we translate our culture of collaboration and creativity to a remote-first model. Our goal is to ensure fairness for all our employees — regardless of whether they’re in the office or remote.

We’re looking forward to seeing each other again after more than a year apart. Although things will look a little different, we are committed to continuing to build Yelp into a great place to work for all our employees. 

If you’re interested in learning more about a five star career at Yelp, visit www.yelp.careers.