Google is feeling optimistic as employees are returning to offices, recording 20-30% occupation rates in its San Francisco Bay Area physical offices. The company’s New York offices are seeing a 50% occupation rate. This comes a few months ahead of the company’s deadline of expecting employees back in the office three days a week.
In August, the company had said workers around the world will not be required to return to their offices until at least January 10, 2022 amid the surge in COVID-19 delta variant. Google had said employees returning would need to be fully vaccinated.
Sundar Pichai Google CEO, on Monday, said employees who don’t want to get vaccinated would be able to work remotely. He said that personally, he has begun coming into the office two to three days a week on average.
Google has delayed a full office return, it had previously pushed from September to October, illustrating how much of a moving target reopening continues to be as the COVID delta variant continues to spread. Big tech firms that took the lead in sending corporate workers home at the start of the pandemic are now being more cautious in bringing them back.
It should be noted that Google has changed its policies multiple times, initially requiring employees to come back to their pre-pandemic offices at least three days a week, but subsequently allowing them to apply for permanent remote work or a change in their office location. In August, Google had highlighted that around 10,000 employees had applied to change where they work from as of July 2, with 45% seeking to remain permanently remote and 55% wanting to switch offices.
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Pichai had earlier said that employees who want to work remotely full-time or who want to move to different offices will have to submit applications to the company to do so. Managers will have to approve the moves, and their decisions will be based on the needs of the employees’ teams. Google plans to adjust the pay of employees who relocate – whether to work remotely or to work out of a different office, based on the cost of living in their new locations.
