Parul
According to news reports, Google has decided that most of its 2,00,000 employees and contractors will work from home through next June. The remote-work order issued by Google CEO Sundar Pichai also affects other companies owned by Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet. It marks a six-month extension of Google’s previous plan to keep most of its offices closed through the rest of this year.
Pichai, who is also Alphabet’s CEO, wrote, in an email to employees, “I know this extended timeline may come with mixed emotions and I want to make sure you’re taking care of yourselves. I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months.”
Pichai’s email noted that Google and Alphabet have been able to reopen some offices in 42 countries, although he didn’t specify which.
In fact, even before the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11, Google and many other prominent tech firms had asked their employees to work from home.
As per reports, Google had originally planned to allow a significant number of employees to begin returning to its Mountain View, California, headquarters and other offices during the summer. However, pandemic’s ongoing spread prompted Google to push back the reopening until January and now it has prompted yet another delay.
