Google Opts 'Flexible Work Week,' Pushes Office Return To September 2021: NYT

Alphabet, Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) extends the remote work period for its staff until September 2021, the New York Times reports.

What Happened: Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai told office staff in Sunday’s email that the return to office is delayed till September.

Post return, Google is moving to a hybrid “flexible workweek” model, under which employees would be expected to work at least three days a week in the office for “collaboration days” while working from home the other days, NYT reports.

The proposed changes could affect how other Silicon Valley companies will work.

Why It Matters: “We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being,” Pichai wrote in the email.

Pichai added that no company of Google’s scale had adopted a fully hybrid model for its workforce, and it will be interesting to try. However, Pichai’s email did not mention vaccination requirements for return to the office. 

Google has recommended that employees obtain the vaccine when their health care provider or local public health authority makes it available, a company spokeswoman told NYT.

Work from home has become a hot debate topic since the pandemic outbreak with various leaders’ varying opinions. Netflix Inc NFLX CEO Reed Hastings called remote work a “pure negative” in his interview with the Wall Street Journal, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM CEO Jamie Dimon doesn’t expect normalcy till mid-2021 and is aiming for just 15% to 25% of capacity.

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