Google extends the possibility of teleworking until July 2021 - France 24

New York (AFP)

Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Internet giant Google announced on Monday that it had decided to allow its employees to telecommute until the end of the coming school year, that is, July 2021.

"To give employees the opportunity to organize themselves in advance, we are extending until June 30, 2021 the option allowing those who wish to work from home for all those who do not need to be at the office, "wrote company CEO Sundar Pichai in a message to AFP.

This decision will affect almost all full-time or contract employees of the parent company Alphabet in the world, or about 200,000 people in total, said the Wall Street Journal, which had reported on this new human resources policy a little earlier. during the day.

Google had so far planned to allow its employees to work from home until the end of 2020.

According to the business daily, Mr. Pichai particularly wants to help employees who have to take care of children, since the functioning of schools at the start of the school year and for the rest of the school year remains uncertain around the world.

The decision also allows employees to better organize themselves for the rental of housing.

While employee preferences on whether or not to be in the office vary and some departments question the effectiveness of teleworking over the long term, large tech groups have generally adopted flexible approaches.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg estimated in May that half of Facebook employees could work from home permanently within 5 to 10 years.

According to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) released on Monday, a large majority of businesses in the United States expect to at least partially maintain teleworking once the pandemic has passed.

Two thirds of respondents believe that their company's experience with the Covid-19 pandemic will lead to more flexible hiring and working arrangements in the future and more than 80% of respondents indicated that their company will keep "a certain degree" of telework after the health crisis.

© 2020 AFP