Tech giants: Home office forever?

Around 200,000 employees of the Google should work from home until at least the end of June 2021 due to Corona. Facebook is already calculating the advantages of permanent home work. Did the virus kill the office?

While many employers are successively ordering their employees back into the office, depending on the national and regional pandemic situation, Google is the first Silicon Valley company that is now clearly being extended: The mother Alphabet wants its employees at least until the end of June 2021 keep in home office – six months longer than previously planned. It looks like the decision could make a difference. Facebook and Twitter are on the best way to turn the emergency into a permanent solution.

The IT giants have had a positive overall record of working from home

Sundar Pichai according to the “Wall Street Journal”; above all to give his employees planning security for childcare. It is still unclear whether schooling in the United States will resume after the summer vacation. “I hope (the extension) offers you the flexibility you need to balance work and family life in the next twelve months;” he said in a memo to his employees. The announcement applies to all-around 200,000 employees worldwide. “We are still learning a lot from our experience working from home and will use this knowledge for our approach to the future of work at Google;” it continues.

The IT giants have had a positive overall record of working from home over the past few months; it seems so. The corona-related switch to home office worked, the employees worked well for four months outside of their offices – despite simultaneous childcare and other distractions. Google’s announcement increases the pressure on the industry to also formulate a broader pandemic strategy and define what the future of work should look like. Facebook and Twitter have not yet given appointments, but they are also thinking in the longer term.