Lyft Inc. said employees can work remotely for all of 2022, a reversal of its previous mandate and one of the longest office-return delays among major companies.

       The second-largest U.S. ride-hailing operator revised an earlier requirement for workers to be back at their desks in February.

       Many companies are changing their return dates yet again, this time in response to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, but few have gone as far as Lyft’s full-year reprieve. Google informed employees last week that it won’t enforce its January deadline and will reassess after that. Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft’s main rival, made a similar move.

       Business

       For Subscribers

       Back to the office: Bracing for the return of in-person work

       Some of us are hoping that a year of remote work will lead to greater job flexibility. Others can’t wait to get out of the house.

       Advertisement

       Lyft’s offices will fully reopen in February as planned for employees who want to come in, but returning will be optional for the whole year. The new policy was not “exclusively tied” to Omicron, but the new strain is “a factor contributing to some uncertainty,” a Lyft spokeswoman said.

       The San Francisco-based company doesn’t plan to go fully remote indefinitely as others, including Twitter Inc., have done. Lyft will “continue to talk with team members, use their insights and prioritize flexibility as we develop long-term plans for how we work,” the spokeswoman said.