In an email to employees today, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that even though “we are welcoming back tens of thousands of Googlers on a voluntary basis,” the company will extend its voluntary return to work policy until at least January 10th, 2022. After that date, the current plan is to have countries and locations make mandatory return to work decisions depending on local conditions.
Google pushes its mandatory return to office date into 2022
After January 10th, decisions on return to work days will fall to specific countries and offices
After January 10th, decisions on return to work days will fall to specific countries and offices
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
is a senior editor following news across tech, culture, policy, and entertainment. He joined The Verge in 2021 after several years covering news at Engadget.
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. Whenever its offices expect to have employees there in-person, Pichai reiterated that there would be a 30-day heads up first.
The letter didn’t directly cite the Delta variant, but waves of infection have again wrangled plans of several Big Tech companies as they consider when and how to have employees in offices again. In May, Pichai outlined a new hybrid schedule of three in-office days per week, but it will be several months before that is in play for many of Google’s employees.
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