Google has postponed the mandatory return of its employees to the office until January 2022, like its neighbors in Silicon Valley, worried about the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19.
"I am delighted that many of our offices have already reopened," Sundar Pichai, the boss of the tech giant, said in a statement.
“But in many places around the world, the pandemic continues to cause uncertainty,” he added.
The worldwide return to the company's campuses, on a voluntary basis, has therefore been postponed to January 10, 2022, “to give more flexibility and choice” to employees.
“You will have 30 days' notice before having to come back to the office,” adds the manager.
Two days of worldwide rest for staff
Its California neighbors Facebook and Apple, as well as Amazon, have made similar announcements recently. They were counting on a return to the fall thanks to vaccination campaigns, but revised their plans in the face of the new wave of Covid-19 contamination. Google is also one of the many companies, in tech and elsewhere, that have made the vaccine mandatory for their employees. Teleworking gives rise to many debates between employees who wish to return to offices as before the health crisis, those who prefer telework and those who aspire to a hybrid model.
As early as last year, Twitter offered employees the opportunity to work from home indefinitely.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg estimated that half of the platform's workforce could work remotely within ten years.
“The pandemic is a challenge that makes us all more humble and I am very impressed with the way our teams are adapting,” said Sundar Pichai.
He has promised two new global staff rest days this fall (October 22 and December 17).
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