Google has confirmed it will give every employee working remotely a $1,000 allowance to spend the requisite equipment and office furniture.
It added that it expects most of its employees to work mostly from home for the remainder of 2020.
Google will however reopen buildings in more cities at approximately 10 percent of their capacity beginning July 6.
If all goes well, the return will begin on July 6th with the requisite employees appearing on a “rotating basis” with a capacity of about 10 per cent.
A worker can arrive in just once every two weeks, Pichai said. If things go smoothly, those rotations will rise to 30 per cent by September.
There will be “rigorous” security measures like social isolation and cleanliness, and it will be required to appear only to those who actually need to access the office. Agency visits in the year 2020 will be free for everyone else.
Part of the strategy is shared with companies such as Facebook. It’s clear, however, that Google won’t accept remote work as enthusiastically as Twitter, making most workers work from home indefinitely.
Some of the achievements of the internet giant came from “chance encounters in the office,” explained Pichai, and the staff does not want to risk the human link.
Google is researching the impact of the sudden move from home to work and is looking for “more overall flexibility” that could involve more remote work, but it is not yet ready to give up physical offices.