Most Google employees will have the option to not return to work from the company’s more than 100 offices around the world until at least next summer as the COVID-19 pandemic rages in the U.S. and other countries.
CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to Google staff around 6 a.m. PT Monday noting successes in bringing employees back to the office in many countries where local conditions have improved.
“In other parts of the world, we haven’t reopened more widely,” he said, referring in part to the United States, where Google employees are still on a mandatory work-from-home order until the end of the year.
With varying restrictions still in place in many countries and municipalities, and employees trying to make long-term plans for where they reside and how they manage their lives during the crisis, Mountain VIew, Calif.-based Google decided to extend a global voluntary work-from-home option through the end of June 2021. That will remain in effect regardless of progress in combating the pandemic before then.
That voluntary option, however, only applies to non-essential employees that “don’t need to be in the office,” he said.
Pichai instructed Google employees around the world to look to their local leaders for continuing updates.
“With robust health and safety protocols in place, we have opened offices in 42 different countries and hope to reopen in many more as conditions permit,” Pichai said.
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