Twitter has made it official to let its employees work from home “forever” if they chose to and they will be paid like a normal working day as they sit in the comfort of their homes.

The new option is for those employees who do not need to be physically present in office for certain roles that cannot be done from homes.

The San Francisco-based company said it was among the first to move to telework in March as a result of the Coronavirus crisis and that it will continue that policy indefinitely as part of a move towards a “distributed workforce.”

“We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow folks to work from home given our emphasis on decentralization and supporting a distributed workforce capable of working from anywhere,” a Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying by AFP.

“The past few months have proven we can make that work. So if our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen.”

Twitter said any reopening of its offices will be “careful, intentional, office by office and gradual” when conditions permit.

“Opening offices will be our decision, when and if our employees come back, will be theirs,” the spokesperson said.

“With very few exceptions, offices won’t open before September. When we do decide to open offices, it also won’t be a snap back to the way it was before.”

The company has said that there will be no business travel before September, with very few exceptions, and no in-person company events for the rest of 2020.

“We will assess 2021 events later this year,” it said.

With this move, Twitter has upped the ante after Facebook, Alphabet (Google) and others have asked their employees to work from home till year-end.

Earlier, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had granted an option to his staff to work from home “forever” even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

Google and Facebook have also decided to allow most of their workforces to stay home and work through the end of this year.

Facebook will open most of its office from July 6.

Google employees will be able to walk into their offices starting July, but majority of those whose roles allow them to work from home could do so until the end of the year.

Google’s original plan was to keep work from home policy until June 1.

E-commerce major Amazon India has also allowed its employees to work from home till October.