- Google employees will reportedly continue to work from home until at least July 2021.
- The decision will affect approximately 200,000 individuals.
- The move comes as the coronavirus pandemic intensifies in the US.
With no end in sight to the coronavirus pandemic, Google will extend its current work from home policy through to at least July 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move will affect nearly all of the company’s approximately 200,000 full-time and contract workers.
The WSJ reports Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai made the decision himself during a meeting with other top executives last week. Pichai reportedly sees the policy as a way to give employees with children the opportunity to plan for an uncertain school year. The move will also allow those same employees to sign full-year leases if they decide to move. The decision applies to most of the company’s workers, including those who live outside of the US.
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“I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months,� said Pichai in a memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
Google had previously announced it would reopen some of its offices to a limited number of employees on July 6. As The Wall Street Journal notes, the company’s decision may prompt other tech firms to extend their work from home policies due to the coronavirus pandemic. Besides forcing its employees to work from home, the public health crisis has scuttled various events Google had planned to hold this year, including its annual I/O developer conference. The coronavirus pandemic is also likely to blame for the Pixel 4a‘s ongoing disappearance.
We’ve reached out to Google to confirm the move. We’ll update this article when we hear back from the company.