Google extending remote work policy through July 2021

Google will keep its employees at home until next July at least, a spokesperson for the search giant confirmed to The Hill Monday.

“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,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a memo to employees.

The extension of the company’s existing remote work policy will apply to roughly 200,000 full-time and contract employees at Google and its parent company Alphabet, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the extension.

Google had previously told employees to return at the beginning of January.

Silicon Valley companies were some of the first to send white-collar workers home in March when the coronavirus pandemic began spreading in the U.S. The companies are now again leading the way in extending remote work.

Amazon earlier this week extended its work from home policy through January 2021. The company’s warehouse workers, several of which have died of COVID-19, are not included in the extension.

Facebook is letting employees stay remote through the end of 2020, and Mark Zuckerberg has said up to 50 percent of the social media platform’s employees may stay remote by 2030.

Jack Dorsey has announced employees at Twitter and Square will be able to work from home indefinitely.