July 27 (UPI) — Google said Monday that it will extend its COVID-19 work-from-home order to summer 2021.
The move makes Google the first major U.S. corporation to formally offer such an extended timetable before return to the office amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
It will affect nearly all of roughly 200,000 full-time and contract employees across Google parent Alphabet.
“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 told employees in an email, CNBC reported.
The work-from-home order previously would have expired in January, Google had said.
Amazon said in a blog on April 30 that employees that can do their work from home can continue to do so until at least Oct. 2. Since then, Amazon has extended its work-from-home order to Jan. 8, CNBC previously reported.
Apple and Facebook said employees are not expected to return to the office before the end of 2020.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told employees in an email in May that some employees working from home due to the pandemic could do so permanently, even after the COVID-19 lockdown passes, BuzzFeed News reported.
