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[EviLore]

“
Google will keep its employees at home until next July at least, a spokesperson for the search giant confirmed to The Hill Monday.

"To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don't need to be in the office," Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo to employees.

The extension of the company's existing remote work policy will apply to roughly 200,000 full-time and contract employees at Google and its parent company Alphabet, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reportedon the extension.

Google had previously told employees to return at the beginning of January.


Silicon Valley companies were some of the first to send white-collar workers home in March when the coronavirus pandemic began spreading in the U.S. The companies are now again leading the way in extending remote work.

Amazon earlier this week extended its work from home policy through January 2021. The company's warehouse workers, several of which have died of COVID-19, are not included in the extension.

Facebook is letting employees stay remote through the end of 2020, and Mark Zuckerberg has said up to 50 percent of the social media platform's employees may stay remote by 2030.
“

Looks like Google expects this to take another year at minimum.

 

[Compsiox]

That's pretty huge. Interesting future we're heading towards.

 

[Danny 117]

Fair play to them. I wonder what the “new normal” will be like when all of this is over?

I think WFH should become more commonplace (Say: 60:40) and you should only be made come into the office for important meetings etc.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

God, that sounds like the dream job to have nowadays

 

[bender]

I deal with a lot of S&L government. Reopening plans keep getting pushed further and further back. There is also a feeling of better production for non-essential personal who work at home. I'm not sure "normal" will return until 2022 at this point and even at that, how people work and on what type of devices will be altered forever.

 

[Tesseract]

God, that sounds like the dream job to have nowadays

meh

 

[JORMBO]

My work got pushed back until January. Not sure why Google pushed theirs back so far and so early. Vaccine development seems to be going well and there’s no rush to push it back that far.

 

[lock2k]

My work got pushed back until January. Not sure why Google pushed theirs back so far and so early. Vaccine development seems to be going well and there’s no rush to push it back that far.

Imagine how much money companies are saving. Do the math.

 

[NinjaMouse]

My work got pushed back until January. Not sure why Google pushed theirs back so far and so early. Vaccine development seems to be going well and there’s no rush to push it back that far.

I’d imagine it’s driven a lot by complicated school arrangements for working parents, too. That’s the line my company gave when extending WFH thru the end of this year, at least. Many schools systems around the country are planning on opening with partial or full remote options this year, leaving folks in a pickle in regards to child care for the “at home” days.

That, coupled with workplace capacity issues and money saved on the usual office perks, it only makes sense for them to keep folks home longer.

I also predict this to be the next great compensation model. Previously, remote gigs often came with a pretty significant compensation hit, but now, companies will be offering market salaries with remote benefit, even after the virus is over (whatever that looks like, of course).

 

[teezzy]

I miss my office so much. I swear to Christ, I better be allowed to go back soon.

 

[Ten_Fold]

I think next year, the numbers should be a lot lower to the point of everything back open, but I feel big events with over 10k people probably won’t happen till 2022. Anyways I really like the idea of remote work, get paid good salaries to work at home if you want to.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

There's no benefit for anyone to go back to 9-5 office hours.

Less traffic on roads
More time at home = more time at work (I'll log on at 07:30 and check my emails, instead of 09:00 when i start...)
Companies can use this as a swindle for "lowering emissions"
Fewer parking spaces needed
Employees can now 'freelance' and work for multiple companies at once
Insurance for companies is cheaper because there are less staff on site
Less waste and energy consumption

Endless benefits

 

[Goro Majima]

There's no benefit for anyone to go back to 9-5 office hours.

Less traffic on roads
More time at home = more time at work (I'll log on at 07:30 and check my emails, instead of 09:00 when i start...)
Companies can use this as a swindle for "lowering emissions"
Fewer parking spaces needed
Employees can now 'freelance' and work for multiple companies at once
Insurance for companies is cheaper because there are less staff on site
Less waste and energy consumption

Endless benefits

Also I think Silicon Valley won't have to pay Silicon Valley wages for a whole lot longer if they're able to recruit people from the middle of nowhere where cost of living is significantly less.

The problem I always fear is the phrase "If it can be done from home, it can be done from India"

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Also I think Silicon Valley won't have to pay Silicon Valley wages for a whole lot longer if they're able to recruit people from the middle of nowhere where cost of living is significantly less.

The problem I always fear is the phrase "If it can be done from home, it can be done from India"

Good point, i forgot that one from the list.

If you had to commute 40 mins a day, each way, to earn £40k (for talks sake) or you could work from home, doing the same job, for £35k, almost everyone would take the pay cut

 

[TheHighFlyingBirds]

Is this to allow their staff to go 'protest' without having to worry about going in to work stinking like a piss stained waster or being late due to being arrested in the night?

 

[oagboghi2]

The problem I always fear is the phrase "If it can be done from home, it can be done from India"

I mean, hasn't this always been true.