Salesforce reopening San Francisco headquarters in May

SAN FRANCISCO - Salesforce, the largest private employer in San Francisco, announced that it will reopen its global headquarters in May.

Workers will have the option to work from home until the end of the year, the company's announcement said.

Salesforce said that the first groups of workers allowed in Salesforce Tower on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco will have received COVID vaccinations. 

"To start, fully vaccinated employees will be able to volunteer to join groups of 100 or fewer people to work on designated floors in certain offices, following safety protocols and health mandates," Salesforce President Brett Hyder said in the blog post.

There were 9,500 Salesorce employees in San Francisco, the San Francisco Business Times said in January.

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Offices in Palo Alto and Irvine, Calif. Will reopen at the same time as the San Francisco headquarters.The cloud-services giant has already reopened 22 international offices.

Mandatory COVID tests will be conducted twice a week at the office. Non-vaccinated employees will be allowed to return at a later point.

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The company had recently declared that "the 9-to-5 workday is dead" as it touted flexible arrangements enabling some employees to set schedules split between home and office while others would be 100% remote and, a smaller group, would work exclusively at a Salesforce site.

California officials have said that most businesses will be allowed to reopen by June 15, assuming that vaccinations are widely available and COVID-19 hospitalization rates are low. Face coverings will continue to be required in public settings.

Uber, the ride-hailing app, opened its headquarters in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood last month.