No office in sight

[Bloomberg]( Today’s top tech stories: - A deep dive on Activision’s [drinking and sexism]( problem - Alibaba is firing a manager [accused of rape]( - Amazon is asking warehouse workers to [mask up]( The point of no return The return to the office was over before it even began. Over the last few weeks, a cascade of tech companies pushed back their return plans because of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. The delays kicked off in mid-July, when [Apple Inc.]( said it wouldn’t ask employees to come back until October at the earliest. It’s been followed by Alphabet Inc.’s [Google](, [Microsoft Corp.]( and [Uber Technologies Inc.](—which all also set an October reopening target. [Lyft Inc.]( shifted its timeline all the way back to February. And on Thursday, Amazon pushed its plans [to January](. Many companies ([Facebook Inc.](, Microsoft and Google to name a few) will require employees that do come in to be vaccinated, and others (Lyft, Facebook, Uber and more) are also requiring masks in the office even while seated at a desk. Since the beginning of the pandemic, tech companies have set a cautious standard for the rest of corporate America on Covid-19 measures. Now, they’re again at the forefront of delaying returns, while industries like Wall Street are desperate to [bring workers back](. Many tech companies have even gone largely remote. Coinbase Global Inc., for example, is [shutting down]( its San Francisco headquarters, and Dropbox Inc. is using its offices mostly as a meeting space. "We've adopted a virtual-first model, and for us, that means individual work happens from home,” Dropbox Chief Executive Officer Drew Houston said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Friday. “We've turned our offices into collaborative convening spaces.” The looming question for tech companies now is: Will talented people ever be willing to return? Many employers are already in a tug of war with staff who’d like to skip commuting indefinitely. Some workers want to avoid the office so badly that a recent survey found that nearly two-thirds would accept a 5% pay cut if it meant they never had to go back. In many cases, a relaxed return-to-office timeline has been reimagined as a tech industry perk, supplanting beer pong and [gourmet corporate cafeterias](. More than other industries, tech may be well positioned to allow its workforce to scatter. Employees handy with conferencing tools often work on digital-only products, and the industry’s profit has surged to new highs during lockdowns. Most employees have been working remotely successfully for a year and a half now. By the time these latest stay-home orders end, it will have been two years since many were tethered to a physical office. Still, even companies like Google, where employees [felt just as productive]( at home, want people back on campus so badly that they redesigned the office with anti-virus [balloon walls]( and outdoor tents and teepees. (Google said it has [granted 85% of staff requests]( to transfer offices of work from home indefinitely.) Workers’ embrace of the home office is made all the more remarkable considering work-from-home pushes more costs onto employees than commuting into the office would. Guess who is now paying for air conditioning and heating all day, and buying more toilet paper? Some companies offer stipends but those often don’t cover the expense of moving somewhere with enough space for a home office, or even a real desk. The next hot perk should be a pay raise to account for the extra costs associated with working from home. But that would require employers to accept that they’ve lost the battle for the physical office. It will be a while before that happens on a large scale—even in tech.  —[Priya Anand](mailto:panand20@bloomberg.net) in San Francisco If you read one thing There are many Asian Americans in Silicon Valley, but full equality is still a long way off. [Months of reporting reveals]( a complicated picture of racial bias in tech. “It looks awesome in the beginning,” says one VC. “But then there’s a wall you hit. It’s a bait and switch.” Sponsored Content GEP commissioned a survey of over 400 senior business leaders from the world’s leading global enterprises to determine the real costs of supply chain disruptions. The impacts run deeper and wider than what most enterprises had anticipated. [Read the full report here >>]( GEP And here’s what you need to know in global technology news Amazon is offering workers the chance to win [cars and $500,000 cash prizes]( if they get vaccinated. Apple defended its upcoming [child-safety features](, which have been criticized on privacy grounds. Melinda French Gates owns [$5.7 billion in stock]( post-divorce. Startups [are surveilling]( the suburbs. Follow Us More from Bloomberg Dig gadgets or video games? [Sign up for Power On]( to get Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more in your inbox on Sundays. [Sign up for Game On]( to go deep inside the video game business, delivered on Fridays. Why not try both?  Like Fully Charged? | [Get unlimited access to Bloomberg.com](, where you'll find trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters. 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