Google Tells the Majority of Its Employees to Work from Home Until 2021

According to recent reports, Google is extending the company’s work-from-home policy until the end of 2020 for the majority of employees. Following suit of other tech giants and their announcements, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on May 7, Thursday, that the larger part of the workers is expected to work remotely through October and most probably up until 2021.

Keeping fewer employees it the office at a time helps maintain social distance and thus minimize the spread of the disease.

There will be exceptions for some key employees who will be able to get back to the offices once they are re-opened in June or July this year with precautionary measures and a “different” in-office experience. Of course, if local guidelines allow.

The company’s CEO also allowed all employees to take Friday 22 as a day off in order to recharge and not get a burnout. He said, “Take the time to do whatever you need to do to prioritise your wellbeing.”

In an all-staff email, Sundar Pichai also wrote, “We’re starting to really get the hang of these virtual meetings, though I do miss the experience of having so many of us in the same place. It may be awhile before that’s possible. Our ramp back to the office will be slow, deliberate and incremental.”

Google’s announcement follows the same of Facebook that also let its workforce to continue working from home until the end of this year.

Google began advising the workers to work from home because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic back in March.

Still, Google and Facebook are not the only companies to switch to further work-from-home style. Over the past few weeks, such companies as Slack and Amazon also told their employees to work from home through October and September.

In an attempt to help minimize the spread of COVID-19 disease, Google launched an educational website about the novel coronavirus as well as teamed up with Apple and implemented contact tracing in iOS and Android devices.