Google staff will work from home for the majority of 2021

The WFH trend shows no signs of slowing after Google told its staff that they should work remotely for the majority of next year.

Although employees were previously told that they could return to the office from January, this has now been pushed back until September, according to an internal company email seen by The New York Times.

In addition, Google staffers will also be offered the opportunity to trial a ”flexible workweek” once they have eventually returned to the office. The proposal would see employees based in the office for three days every week, working from home the rest of the time.

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Delayed return

“We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, explained in the company email. “No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid work force model — though a few are starting to test it — so it will be interesting to try.”

The coronavirus pandemic has sent shockwaves across the world, significantly disrupting the world of work. While many businesses have struggled due to lower demand, others have had to rapidly adopt new technologies to enable their staff to work from home.

Google, with its huge financial and technological resources, is better placed than most firms to manage the coronavirus disruption and earlier this year moved quickly to allow its staff to work remotely. Twitter, Fujitsu, and Dell are among the other major firms to announce that the pandemic will lead to long-lasting changes to their remote working policies.

Although Google’s internal email will provide some clarity for employees wondering when they will be asked to resume their daily commute, it made no mention of whether the company will be asking its employees to secure a coronavirus vaccine before returning to the office.

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