The return to office mandate for workers in the US has been delayed again as concerns over the new coronaviruses omicron variant raise alarm worldwide and prompt new restrictions.
In an email to full-time staffers sent on Thursday, the tech company said it would scrap its planned Jan. 10 mandate and wait until 2022. The email did not mention the omicron variant. According to Insider, the uncertainty around COVID-19 and the new travel restrictions were the reason why employees in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa were not able to return to work next month.
Employees will have to return to work three days a week in January and be fully vaccined. In the last few weeks, most of the company's offices in the U.S. have opened.
Chris Rackow, the vice president of global security for the company, said in an email that the company will allow specific locations to determine when to bring their employees back to the office. The policy was disclosed by CEO Sundar Pichai, who said that teams would be given a 30-day heads-up before they were expected to go in.
Each office will be assessed by the local incident response teams of the internet giant.
In order to regain the muscle memory of being in the office more regularly, employees are encouraged to come into the office where conditions allow.
We will be re- learning our working rhythms together in 2022, which will bring new opportunities and new challenges as we experiment with more flexible ways of working.
The delay was in line with the plan set by the company, according to a spokesman for the company. The end of the Pandemic and the return to office dates of big tech are both uncertain. It's not clear if Apple, Facebook, and Amazon will push back their hybrid work pilot plans.
The hybrid work week will be decided based on local conditions, according to a spokesman for the company.
