According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is the first of the big tech companies to definitively keep its workers at home until the middle of next year. Google had already announced plans to reopen some offices from July 6th, however returning to the office was optional for Google staffers.
Google first closed its offices in March 2020 and originally announced to reopen their offices on July 6th. In light of an increase in coronavirus cases in southern California, Google then opted to push this back to September 2020.
Last week, CEO of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Sundai Pichai, decided to establish a more specific time frame for remote working. Part of the reason for this decision is to give employees with families more certainty about how long they would be working from home as, according to the WSJ, many are struggling with inconsistent direction from school districts.
Facebook, Twitter and Square workers have been permitted to work remotely indefinitely, reports The Verge.
