Two of the biggest tech companies Facebook and Google have said they will let employees continue working from home for the rest of the year.
According to a CNBC report, both the companies have announced plans to reopen their offices soon but they are going to take a call on which employees are absolutely needed in office and ask the rest to work from home till the end of the year.
Facebook said it is planning to re-open offices on July 6 but would let employees work from home through the end of 2020 if they wished. The company will consider various factors such as “public health data, government guidance and local nuances” when deciding whether to reopen its offices, said a spokeswoman.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may announce the company’s office reopening plan in an official statement soon.
BBC reports on Friday, Google employees will be able to walk into their offices starting July, but the majority of those whose roles allow them to work from home could do so until the end of the year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said. Previously Google’s original plan was to keep work from home policy until June 1.
A Google spokesperson confirmed that Pichai in an internal meeting Thursday also said employees who must return to offices will be able to do so starting in June or July, with extra safety precautions to prevent coronavirus transmission.
Facebook has already cancelled all physical conferences and events it had planned with 50 or more people through June 2021. It includes the Oculus Connect 7 virtual reality conference in San Jose. According to Zuckerberg, some of these will be organized as virtual events instead.
The announcements from the two companies affect several thousand workers around the world. Facebook currently has more than 48,000 full-time employees, while Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has more than 120,000.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
