From Google To TCS: How World's Biggest Tech Companies Are Working From Home In 2020

In an internal all-hands meeting with its employees, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that Google will be carrying out the work from home, until the end of the year. The current work from home policy that Google is adhering to will remain active till June 1st. The Information's report further revealed that the return to the office would be done in a gradual, incremental way.

Pichai has also stated that employees who need to return to the office won¡¯t do that before June or July, claims the report. Moreover, they will be putting emphasis on the safety measures, with an entirely different in-office experience.

Social media giant Facebook is next in line to announce that they¡¯ll continue to work from home till the end of this year. This was announced by a Facebook spokesperson in a conversation with CNBC. Facebook has also revealed that it expects most offices to stay closed until 6 July. It is still deciding which employees will be the first to be asked to join working at the offices.?

Moreover, last month, Zuckerberg had announced that the company would not hold any gatherings of more than 50 people until at least July 2021.

In case you didn¡¯t know, Microsoft is the largest employer in the field of tech with over 144,000 employees worldwide. A few days ago, a Microsoft spokesperson said in a conversation with Business Insider that it will allow its employees to work from home as long as October 2020.?

The spokesperson stated, ¡°When restrictions lift, working from home will remain optional through October unless employees are in an essential role or local authorities mandate otherwise.¡±

Amazon is one company that continues to function despite the lockdown, even after several COVID-19 cases surfacing in its warehouses. Amazon recently told its staff that is currently working from home that they can continue to do so until at least October 2nd, 2020. It has also revealed that the company is investing heavily in lining up safety measures for employees who wish to work in office, through social distancing, deep cleaning, temperature checks as well as making face masks, sanitisers available.

Even in India, COVID-19 situation isn¡¯t getting any better. Looking at the current trend, Indian tech giant HCL has revealed that while there is no indication till when the offices will start to function when they do, they will make 50 percent of their workforce to work from home.

HCL CEO C. Vijaykumar said in its recent fourth earnings call, ¡°It¡¯s going to take some time to see what the long term operating model will be. But directionally, I see 50% of our employees will work from home and 50% will work from offices in the next 12-18 months.¡±

Infosys recently revealed that almost 93 percent of its staff -- roughly 240,000 employees are currently working from home. It too has not announced the date for opening its offices anytime soon. However, last month, it revealed that the commencement of working in office will start in phases.

COO Pravin Rao said that the firm's employees will return to offices in a phased manner. ¡°We are in no hurry to get employees back to offices. Our first phase of returns, when it happens, will likely get 5 percent of employees returning, and in the next phase will total about 15 percent.¡±

TCS has announced that it is in no hurry to commence working in offices. While it has not announced when it will be opening the gates to its offices, it has revealed that initially, it will only allow 25 percent of workforce to enter offices, while the remaining 75 percent will work from home.?

N. Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer (COO), TCS said in a statement, ¡°We believe that 25 percent of employees in our offices, spending only 25 percent of their time at the location, can make 100 percent of the people productive.¡±