Google delays its mandatory return to office deadline to 2022

Tech giant Google has extended the option for its employees to voluntarily return to work until at least January 10th, 2022. In an email to employees, Google CEO Sundar Pichai attributed the move to variable conditions across the world in view of covid pandemic.




“Given that conditions around the world arestill highly variable, I wanted to so share how we’re planning to approach the next few months,” Pichai said

After that date, the current plan is to have countries and locations make mandatory return to work decisions depending on local conditions. The most recent plan shared publicly would’ve pushed Google employees back to the office at some point in September, but that won’t happen.

“I’m happy to say that a large number of offices globally are already open for business, and we are welcoming back tens of thousands of Googlers on a voluntary basis,” Pichai said.

“The road ahead may be a little longer and bumpier than we hoped, yet I remain optimistic that we will get through it together.”

The Google CEO reiterated 30 days’ notice to Google employees before they would have to return to their offices, and announced they would be able to take off an extra day in October and December as “reset days” to “rest and recharge.”

“Finally, encouraging Googlers to rest and recharge during thhis time remains a big priority so we will plan two more global reset days next quarter: Oct 22 and Dec 17, ” he added.

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The letter didn’t directly cite the Delta variant, but new viariants continue to scuttle plans of big tech firms like MicroSoft, Facebook and others to ask their employees to return to the workplace.