Google will reportedly ask most of its 200,000 employees to work from home until July 2021, as confirmed cases in the US continue to rise.
If you were looking for a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic was easing down, this is not it. Google will reportedly ask its employees to continue working from home until July 2021.
Related | Google Is Banning Ads On COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Websites
The decision will affect most of the 200,000 employees who work across business units owned by Google parent company, Alphabet, according to the Wall Street Journal. Alphabet announced the decision to its employees last week after CEO Sundar Pichai made the call following meetings with execs at the company, according to the report.
Google was quick to let employees work from home when the pandemic started earlier this year. First, it was until July, but as the number of cases in the US continued to increase drastically, Google pushed that date back to September 2020.
Now, as Coronavirus cases continue to increase significantly across the Bay Area as well as several states across the US, Alphabet has pushed back the date even further, with the WSJ reporting it could be another 12 months before employees return to the office.
Google is not the only large tech company to do so, with other companies also extending their work from home policies, some, like Twitter, even considering letting employees WFH permanently.