Facebook And Google Employees Can Relax As They Will Likely Stay Home Until Year-End

On Thursday, Google and Facebook told employees that they will allow most of them to work from home throughout the rest of 2020.

Facebook doesn’t have plans to reopen almost all of its offices until at least Jul 6. The social giant will take into account different factors like government guidance, local nuances, and public health data to make the decision relating to reopening its offices, according to its spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, Google Chief Executive Officer, said at an all-hands meeting that employees will likely work from home through the end of this year.

Like many other firms, Google and Facebook have had their employees work from home to help limit the spread of COVID-19. And these announcements suggest how other tech companies may plan to open their offices again in the coming months.

Last month, Mark Zuckerberg said it’s likely that Facebook employees would be among the last ones to go back to offices after society reopened, noting that the process of bringing employees back to workplaces will have to be conducted gradually. At the time, Zuckerberg said that employees that couldn’t work from home like content reviews working on self-harm prevention, suicide, or counter-terrorism, might go back to the office sooner.

On the other hand, Google told employees to work remotely until June 1 at least. The search giant also said that the return to offices would happen gradually. On Thursday, Pichai said that employees needing to work at the office can start next month or July with safety measures taken to protect them on campus.

Google and Facebook’s decision will affect thousands of workers across the globe. Facebook has over 48,000 full-time employees while Google’s parent company Alphabet has over 120,000.

>>> Facebook's New Discover App Will Let People Browse The Internet For Free