Google has reportedly delayed its plan to have employees work from its offices at least three days a week from Jan. 10, 2022, and it’s not sure when that policy might actually be enforced.
CNBC reports that Google VP of Global Security Chris Rackow announced the latest delay to the company’s mandatory office work policy in an email to employees sent on Dec. 2.
But the delay won’t necessarily mean that Google employees will be allowed to work from home as much as they like. Rackow said that local offices would be allowed to decide when employees have to start coming in at least three days a week, CNBC reports, based on their “risk level.”
Rackow was also said to have told employees they should come in”where conditions allow, to reconnect with colleagues in person and start regaining the muscle memory of being in the office more regularly,” which suggests Google is looking to enforce these policies sooner than later.
“We will be re-learning our working rhythms together in 2022,” Rackow said, “which brings new opportunities and new challenges as we experiment with more flexible ways of working.” Google will give full-time employees up to 30 days to adjust to these shifting expectations of their work.
Google’s announcement follows the revelation of a new COVID-19 variant, omicron, that is said to be more contagious than its predecessors. It’s also believed to be infecting—and hospitalizing—more children under the age of five than other iterations of the virus.
This isn’t the first time Google has delayed its return to mandatory in-office work. Other companies have also had to push back their start dates as new COVID-19 variants have emerged, too, and many people have resisted their employers’ attempts to return to the office.
