Google is reconsidering its return-to-office plans

As noted above, Google is reconsidering its return-to-office plans, saying that its American employees will not have to adopt a hybrid work model starting January 10. However, a Google spokesperson shared that the company's current plan is to postpone the presentation of new plans until next year and that decisions on timing are still left to local offices.

The company has changed its return-to-work plans several times as the pandemic has evolved. In August, when the delta variant was a growing concern, we learned that the company intended to keep working in the office as a volunteer until at least January 10, 2022. That plan itself was a change from a previous one. It was revealed in December 2020. that it would have had employees returning in September.

According to an email from Google VP Chris Rackow, obtained by CNBC, the company reiterated an August promise that full-time employees will be given a 30-day period to switch from working remotely to working in the office when the company start working. bring them back. Google says it still intends to go with the hybrid workweek model that CEO Sundar Pichai described in May, where "most of Google's employees" will work three days in the office and two days remotely.

The spokesperson also told The Verge that the company has opened 90 percent of its offices in the United States for employees to enter voluntarily. CNBC says Google is encouraging employees to come "to reconnect with colleagues in person and start regaining the muscle memory of being in the office more regularly." It remains to be seen if this will continue to be possible and will likely be dictated by the US response as more cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus continue to appear.