Google says work from home till June 2021

As the coronavirus pandemic shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon, Google is extending its work from home(WFH) option for employees until June next year globally, including India.

In an email to employees, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said, “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.”

The move is likely to affect the most of the 2,00,00 full-time and contract employees across Google and Parent Alphabet Inc, including in India where the company is estimated to have 5000 employees.

India is a key market for Google which has major operations in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Pichai recently launched the Google for India Digitisation Fund with a commitment of investing 75000 crore in the next five to seven years towards digitising the Indian economy.

The decision could signal similar efforts by other tech firms and large employers to extend the precautionary policy amid growing fears about the risks of returning to workplace normalcy.

Several tech firms have said they expect to reopen their offices gradually in the coming months. Twitter meanwhile has said it would allow all employees to continue on remote work indefinitely.

E-commerce giant has recently communicated that “employees who work in a role that can effectively be done from home are welcome to do so until January 8 2021.

Over 95 percent of employees at India’s top 5 IT companies- TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra- continue to work from home.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has also extended the relaxation in terms and conditions to facilitate work from home till December 31, 2020, in a move that was welcomed by leaders of the Indian IT industry.