Read Sundar Pichai’s email to Google employees on coming back to office

Internet search giant Google has announced that it is delaying the back to office date for employees until January 10, 2022. This was announced by company’s CEO Sundar Pichai in an email to the employees. Pichai cited that the delay in the deadline has been made keeping in mind how variable the conditions are with the Covid-19 across the world right now. Due to this, the global voluntary return-to-office policy by Google has been extended to January 10, 2022.
After January 10, Google “will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based on local conditions.” He also mentioned that there may be no global policy anymore; it may vary greatly across company’s offices. Google will give a 30-day heads-up before it calls its employees back.
Speaking about the current situation, Pichai said that tens of thousands of Google employees are coming back to offices on a voluntary basis.
Read the complete email here:
Hi Googlers,
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a humbling challenge for all of us and I continue to be impressed by the way our teams are navigating through it. In spite of these challenges, I’m happy to say that a large number of offices globally are already open for business, and we are welcoming back tens of thousands of Googlers on a voluntary basis. Given that conditions around the world are still highly variable, I wanted to share how we’re planning to approach the next few months:
First, as offices continue to reopen, we hope to see more teams coming together where possible, whether it be for regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions around a whiteboard, or outdoor socials. For some locations, conditions are starting to improve, yet in many parts of the world the pandemic continues to create uncertainty. Acknowledging that, we’ll extend our global voluntary return-to-office policy through January 10, 2022 to give more Googlers flexibility and choice as they ramp back.
Beyond January 10, we will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based on local conditions, which vary greatly across our offices. To make sure everyone has ample time to plan, you’ll have a 30-day heads-up before you’re expected back in the office.
Finally, encouraging Googlers to rest and recharge during this time remains a big priority so we will plan two more global reset days next quarter: Oct 22 and Dec 17.
The road ahead may be a little longer and bumpier than we hoped, yet I remain optimistic that we will get through it together. It’s heartening to see Googlers starting to come back to more offices globally. The ability to reconnect in person has been re-energising for many of us, and will make us even more effective in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks for all the great work thus far; look forward to a busy Q4 as we continue to find new ways to be helpful to people everywhere.
-Sundar