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LinkedIn employee’s use the open, non-cubicle-designed workspace at the company’s San Francisco office. It doesn’t require its employees to work in the office.

A LinkedIn employee takes advantage of the outdoor setting at the company’s San Francisco office.

A LinkedIn employee works on the main floor at the company’s San Francisco office.

San Francisco’s Second Street used to see a flood of office commuters, saturating the sidewalks with jacket-clad bodies and business bags. Then the coronavirus hit, muting the street’s activity as lockdowns forced people to work from home. More than two years after the South of Market corridor was hushed by the pandemic, it’s coming back to life, including at LinkedIn’s offices in a sleek, glassy tower at Howard Street.

The professional social network has been a witness to one of the largest shifts in work in history, spurred by the pandemic. With more than 830 million users, including 186 million in the U.S., the tech company has tracked location updates to individual profiles and determined that the Bay Area lost more tech workers than any other region, mirroring significant population declines.

That job churn has directly benefited LinkedIn, which saw “record engagement” in the most recent quarter and revenue growth of 34% from the previous year. That fueled its own growth: Around 40% of the company’s 19,000 workers were hired during the pandemic.

LinkedIn has embraced geographic dispersion as well. The Sunnyvale company adopted a flexible work policy that lets employees work from home as often as they want. Around 10% of the company has gone fully remote, while the rest of its workers spend at least some time in the office.

One of the pandemic hires was Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn’s chief people officer, who said the flexibility is a key reason why people choose to join the company, according to surveys.

LinkedIn Chief People Officer Teuila Hanson says the company allows employees to decide where they should work from.

“We trust all of our employees to make the decision of where it makes the most sense for them to do their work, what works best for them and their teams,” Hanson said.

The company no longer has assigned desks, and workers are free to grab a chair in various collaborative spaces.

The company is also trying to draw workers back to the office through programs like Reconnect, a series of in-person and virtual events around monthly themes. June’s theme of “connecting together” includes a digital music festival, while later months will be focused on tactical work decision-making and the company’s vision and mission, Hanson said.

LinkedIn operates independently from its owner, Microsoft, which requires manager approval for workers who are more than 50% remote. Other tech giants like Google and Apple have mandated three days per week in the office, though those plans have been repeatedly delayed as virus cases swelled.

Hanson said many workers are eager to see their colleagues in person, but at the same time they don’t want “paternal” rules dictating how often they’re in the office. The company has an app that lets co-workers coordinate in-office days so they aren’t working alone.

“I think people definitely are hungry for social interaction, hungry for experience,” she said. “A lot of experiences were taken away from all of us.”

There’s also the famous tech perks: The San Francisco office at 222 Second St. includes free coffee bars, a corporate gym and a cafeteria that was bustling during lunchtime last week.

LinkedIn employees use the cafeteria at the company’s San Francisco office to connect in person with coworkers who usually work remotely.

Workers chowed down on Hainanese chicken and curry while reuniting with coworkers. They included Chelsea Johnson, a senior user-experience researcher who used to live in the Bay Area. But after the murder of George Floyd, Johnson and her husband, a Minnesota native, moved there to support his family and the community. The move was going to be temporary, but with LinkedIn’s remote work policy, it’s become permanent. Johnson plans to visit occasionally, using 222 Second St.’s amenities like interview rooms where she can talk to LinkedIn users.

Though the company has expanded headcount dramatically, Hanson said there has been plenty of room in San Francisco for the new workforce so far. LinkedIn leases all of the 450,000-square-foot 222 Second St., which had space for more than 2,000 workers under pre-pandemic space allocations. The company doesn’t track how many days a week each employee comes in.

Hanson sees more people on average back in its office in Sunnyvale, and one factor could be that people are more comfortable driving in rather than relying on public transportation, she said.

“I definitely see the parking lots full in Sunnyvale,” Hanson said.

LinkedIn employees work in their soundproof conference booths at the company’s San Francisco office.

The company is also expanding to new areas. Two weeks ago, LinkedIn opened an office with around 50 workers in Atlanta, a rising tech hub with a fraction of the housing costs of major coastal cities.

The company is redesigning its onboarding program for new hires, looking at more ways to bring people to the office if they want to. An overwhelming number of interns at the company also wanted an in-person experience, and the company shifted to provide that, Hanson said.

Greg Snapper, senior director of corporate communications, manages a half-dozen people spread across the world, which means juggling meetings around time zones and varying schedules.

Snapper holds a 45-minute meeting once a week, with a dedicated portion to gauge how people are feeling and what challenges they’re facing and to share work tips. Once a quarter, he tries to organize an in-person meeting, often in the Bay Area.

LinkedIn Senior Director of Corporate Communications Greg Snapper mostly works from home, but enjoys the collaborative energy of meeting with people at the company’s office in San Francisco.

A self-described extrovert, Snapper comes into the office about once a week.

“I love the energy that’s in the office, because I think when people are here, you can see the reconnects happen and that’s like a spark between two people that haven’t seen each other in forever,” he said. “That’s why I love coming in; to get things done in person has a magic to it.”

He’s also grateful for the flexibility to spend time at home with his husband or visit his mom in Michigan.

Though other tech firms are mandating an office return, Hanson said there has been no visible downside to embracing permanent remote and flex work, and there are no plans to require workers to come back.

“We have no indication or data that we would need to do something like that,” Hanson said. “All of the anecdotal and survey data that we have, so far, suggests that our hybrid approach is working.”

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf

Roland Li covers commercial real estate for the business desk, focusing on the Bay Area office and retail sectors.

He was previously a reporter at San Francisco Business Times, where he won one award from the California News Publishers Association and three from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

He is the author of "Good Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports," a 2016 book on the history of the competitive video game industry. Before moving to the Bay Area in 2015, he studied and worked in New York. He freelanced for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other local publications. His hobbies include swimming and urban photography.