Google to let employees WFH until year end

Tech giant Google will allow employees to work from home until the end of 2020. Earlier, Google had extended its work-from-home policy until June 1st. Now CEO Sundar Pichai has told employees that they’ll likely work from home until the end of the year.

According to Pichai, employees whose work requires physically being in the office will be allowed back in either June or July, though with increased safety precautions and a “different” in-office experience.

Hence if local guidelines permit, the company will start opening offices globally in June for some employees, but the majority of its workforce will likely work from home until the end of the year.

The announcement follows similar announcements from other major tech companies earlier this week. Social networking giant Facebook stated last week that employees will be able to choose to work from home until the end of 2020. Similarly, organizations such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Slack have also told their employees to work from home through October and September respectively. 

The announcements indicate that regular office work may not return to normal for many until the end of this year on account of COVID-19. Organizations are taking heed of the fact that WFH will remain the new normal for many this year and thus extending their WFH policies till the end of this year.