Google says some employees can WFH permanently

According to an internal Google email sent by CEO Sundar Pichai the tech giant will tweak its work policy to allow more of its employees to work from home in the future.

In the email, seen by Bloomberg, Pichai notes that while the company is slowly opening its offices, following their closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company is also making arrangements to adapt to what it refers to as a “hybrid” return to work policy.

Google was one of the first tech majors to permit employees to work remotely at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Bloomberg suggests that its WFH policy has saved Google a whopping $1 billion, mostly in traveling costs.

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In fact, in its Q1 2021 filing, Google reported that it saved $268 million in expenses from company promotions, travel and entertainment during the first quarter of this year alone.

Remote working

In the email, Pichai shares that the company will allow about 60% of Google's staff to work in the office "a few days a week," while another 20% will be able to relocate and work from one of the many company sites. The rest will be able to apply and work from home permanently.

In an email to Android Central, the company confirmed that it will allow employees to transfer to one of their global offices. 

Furthermore, based on their individual roles and the requirements of their team, employees might even be allowed to permanently work remotely, away from their team or office.

Additionally, the company said employees will temporarily be able to work from a location other than their main office for up to four weeks per year. 

Of course, there might be exceptions. "Many of these updates will be driven by product areas and functions, and there will be exceptions -- some roles may need to be on site more than three days a week due to the nature of the work or level of autonomy required," said Google. 

Besides these WFH relaxations, Google will also offer additional "reset days" to help employees recharge their batteries.

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Via Android Central

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