Yelp employees may work remotely forever

Firm will reduce footprint in another ominous sign for office landlords

Yelp is expected to sublease some of their current offices. (Yelp, Getty)
Yelp is expected to sublease some of their current offices. (Yelp, Getty)

 

It’s enough to make office landlords, well, yelp.

Like other tech companies, Yelp is moving to a hybrid office model.

In a blog post Friday, Yelp’s chief people officer, Carolyn Patterson, announced it will transition to allowing employees to work remotely either full-time or part-time.

Though Yelp will maintain its presence in places where it has offices, including its San Francisco base, it will shed and sublease some space.

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“While we plan to maintain offices in our current locations, with fewer employees coming to the office each day, our real estate needs have changed,” Patterson wrote. “We plan to reduce our real estate footprint as leases come up for renewal, and by subleasing some office space.”

The space that Yelp will keep will be made into a “flexible in-person office environment that invites collaboration, creativity, coffee chats and hallway conversations.”

Other tech firms to announce similar policies include Dropbox, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and Zillow.

The Real Deal reported last month that Yelp has quietly let brokers know that its spaces at SL Green Realty’s 11 Madison Avenue and at 200 Fifth Avenue are available for sublease. It is expected to sublease one and consolidate its New York operations at the other.

Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers was pursuing a similar plan, the report said.