Google has announced it is indefinitely postponing the mandatory return-to-office date due to the sudden spread of the Omicron variant.
In August, the company had said that all its employees would have to return to their offices by January 10, 2022, and work about three days a week thereafter.
Google had given its employees a voluntary work-from-home option until January, but nearly 40 per cent of its US employees returned to office in recent weeks in 90 per cent of its US offices, while other countries had higher percentages.
But the recent directive has said that they will not proceed with the mandatory hybrid style on Jan 10 not only because of the looming Omicron variant, but also because there have be some opposition to the company-mandated vaccinations.
Hundreds of employees had protested Google’s vaccine mandate in the US.
The company’s security VP Chris Rackow wrote in an email to employees that they would wait till the new year to decide on a new date.
“We’ll continue to determine when offices reopen and start the hybrid work week based on local conditions, which are dynamic and vary greatly across locations,” he said.
The company has about 85 offices across 60 countries and was one of the first corporations to allow employees to work from home when the pandemic hit.
