Google to Start Reopening Offices, Targets 30 Percent Capacity in September

Google said on Tuesday it would reopen buildings in more cities at roughly 10 percent of their capacity beginning July 6 and scale it up to 30 percent in September, if conditions permit. Google and its peer Facebook had allowed their employees to work from home in early March following tough government-mandated restrictions to contain the coronavirus.

Google said on Tuesday it would give each employee an allowance of $1,000, or the equivalent value in their country, to expense necessary equipment and office furniture, as it expects most of them to largely work from home for the remainder of the year.

There are a limited number of employees whose roles are needed back in the office this year and they would return on a limited, rotating basis, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.

“Moving ahead, we are looking to develop more overall flexibility in how we work. Our campuses are designed to enable collaboration and community—in fact, some of our greatest innovations were the result of chance encounters in the office—and it's clear this is something many of us don't want to lose. At the same time, we are very familiar with distributed work as we have many offices around the world and open-minded about the lessons we'll learn through this period,” Pichai added.

May 27, 2020