Google Allows Work From Home Till Sept 2021, And Only 3 Days A Week In Office After

We¡¯ve spent the entirety of 2020 fearing the novel coronavirus. However, with vaccines starting to roll out in the UK, Canada and other parts of the world, we all are hoping for things to finally go back to normal, especially with going back to the offices.

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Employees at Google too addressed similar concerns. And recently, CEO, Sundar Pichai answered them for his employees in an email (reported first by the New York Times), where he revealed that employees can continue to work from home till September 2021.

Work from home till September 2021

He said in a statement, ¡°Our goal is to give Googlers everywhere the option to return as soon as local conditions allow, and it¡¯s encouraging to see that in some parts of APAC and EMEA, Googlers are already returning to the office. Other regions are not as far along, so to help these Googlers deal with the uncertainty still ahead, we¡¯ll be extending our voluntary work-from-home option to September 1.¡±

No work-from-home forever

While we¡¯re seeing companies like Twitter and Facebook offering employees to work from home forever, Google isn¡¯t quite sold on the idea. Pichai explained, ¡°We believe that in-office collaboration will be just as important to Google¡¯s future as it¡¯s been to our past.¡±

He, however, mentioned that the pandemic has got ¡°some interesting challenges and opportunities for us as we start to bring Googlers back to the office. We¡¯re going to lean into them and experiment with a series of pilot designs to improve productivity, collaboration, and overall well being.¡±

Flexible working

In order to remove the chaos of a five-day-a-week commute, Google is going to try out a hybrid model where teams come to work on ¡®collaboration days¡¯ in the office, and remaining days working from home, ¡°In sites that have reached Level 2 on the risk assessment curve, we¡¯ll offer a 3/2 work week ¡ª a minimum of three days in the office and two at home (or wherever you work best). This pilot won¡¯t make sense for every role or every team ¡ª particularly Googlers in customer-facing roles spending lots of time with clients, employees who need to be on-site in data centres or labs, or those who depend on specialized equipment to do their work.¡±

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Pichai also mentioned a change in office design where employees will have options like bookable collaboration spaces for up to 12 individuals and outdoor spaces for large teams to reduce the risk of contraction. It will also offer reserved desks for quiet working from the office when home just doesn¡¯t cut it. They¡¯ll also work on new technologies while improving existing products like Meet to help with better productivity.

Pichai concluded stating ¡°No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid workforce model ¡ª though a few are starting to test it ¡ª so it will be interesting to try. We¡¯ll approach these pilots with a spirit of innovation and an open mind, and do rigorous measurement along the way to help us learn and adapt.¡±

Do you think Google work experiment will work? Where employees come to office for only three days in a week and work from home for the remaining two days? Let us know in the comments section below...