Sources: Google will keep nearly all of its employees working from home until at least July 2021, affecting almost 200,000 full-time and contract employees
Search-engine giant pushes back return to normalcy — SAN FRANCISCO—Google will keep its employees home until at least next July …
The scope matters as much as the duration: the figure includes contract workers, a population that at peer companies like Facebook's Accenture and Wipro vendors has been barred from working from home entirely on safety, privacy, and legal grounds.
First-order effects
Google's campus-adjacent plans are effectively frozen for another year — the September 7 reopening target from its own memo is superseded, and any return-to-office logistics now reset around a mid-2021 horizon.
Second-order effects
Rival large employers now face a matching problem: with Google committing to a full year of remote work across both employees and contractors, peers that keep offices open or exclude contractors from remote arrangements — as Facebook's staffing vendors do — inherit the burden of justifying the difference.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, the annual-extension cadence points toward remote work becoming default operating policy rather than an emergency measure at major tech firms, with office footprints and vendor contracts renegotiated around that assumption.
The trend: Big Tech's emergency remote-work policies are hardening into year-long commitments, with Google's successive extensions setting the reference point competitors must respond to.
Breaking: Google will keep its employees home until July 2021, people familiar with the matter said, making it the first major U.S. corporation to formalize such an extended timetable in the face of the coronavirus pandemic https://www.wsj.com/...
@nxthompson
@nxthompson on x
Wow. Google is telling its employees that they'll be working from home until the summer of 2021. My guess is 1) Their models suggest COVID is not going away 2) WFH is going reasonably well there. https://www.wsj.com/...
@cfishman
@cfishman on x
Google will keep its 200,000 employees working from home until at least next July — a year from now — making it the first major U.S. corporation to formalize such an extended timetable. Partly to give staff maximum family flexibility. One year from now. https://www.wsj.com/...
@arainert
@arainert on x
I know lots of companies have set Jan 2021 as a target return date but this seems much smarter/more realistic because it a) gives people a time horizon to plan for that includes the school year and b) who thinks we're going to beat this thing in the middle on winter/flu season? h…
@alexdobie
Alex Dobie on x
Big news for many reasons. One of which: Pixel 5a/6 is gonna be interesting. Granted, the Taiwan team will be working as normal, but it's still Mtn View calling the shots. How do you design, build and test a physical product from top to bottom with that kind of environment? https…
@nikillinit
Nikhil Krishnan on x
Google ended up setting the expectation of perk culture at startups since most companies had to compete with offers from Google. Perks and in-office culture were a huge sell for Google. Now what happens? And can startups compete by pushing for in-office culture? https://twitter.c…
@mattrosoff
Matt Rosoff on x
Huge blow to SF real estate and recovery of downtown. Google leases a ton of space in Soma: https://www.cnbc.com/...
@spencerrascoff
Spencer Rascoff on x
Even post COVID-19, companies requiring 100% in-office 5 days a week attendance will be like companies who had personal offices for everyone after 2005: quaint, out of touch and undesirable.
@spencerrascoff
Spencer Rascoff on x
There will be a big ripple effect from the Google announcement extending WFH to July 2021. Other companies will match. WFH, or hybrid, is the new normal.
@aaronklein
Aaron Klein on x
Think about how much money this is saving Google on perks. Short term, this makes all the financial sense in the world. Long term, the impacts on innovation will be highly negative. https://twitter.com/...
@asymmetricinfo
Megan McArdle on x
Big offices complexes aren't going to fill back up until there is a vaccine they can require most of their employees to get. I get why companies trickle this data out incrementally, but if we haven't solved the problem yet, we won't. https://twitter.com/...
@lutherlowe
Luther Lowe on x
Absent in-person comraderie, Google could lose the scientology-like grip on its company culture. That has dissuaded whistleblowing in the past. If one or two of these 100k+ employees decide to assist the DOJ or state AG investigations, it would be seismic. https://twitter.com/...
@ow
@ow on x
Very grateful that Shopify just decided we're “digital by default” early-on, so we started actually adapting, rather than kicking the can down the road repeatedly https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life
Dare Obasanjo on x
I can't imagine why any Google employee would want to pay Bay Area rents when they don't have to over the next year. Also expect remote work to be a permanent change. Many will not want a commute after 15 months of working from home. https://www.wsj.com/...
@joannastern
Joanna Stern on x
Settle in, everyone. Settle in. https://twitter.com/...
@biannagolodryga
Bianna Golodryga on x
NEXT JULY! https://www.wsj.com/...
@davejorgenson
Washington Post TikTok Guy on x
No one wants to hear this but I bet most of us aren't back at work until September 2021 https://www.wsj.com/...
@retailprophet
Doug Stephens on x
The Office 1726- 2020 R.I.P. https://twitter.com/...