Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet, notified employees on Wednesday that the time to return to the office was extended.
Pichai also requires everyone on campus to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, making Google one of the first major companies to do so.
“Vaccination is one of the most important ways to keep ourselves and our community healthy in the coming months,” Pichai wrote in a note to employees.
The vaccine authorization applies to US office locations “in the coming weeks” and other regions “in the coming months”.
Google will return to the office for its more than 130,000 employees until October 18.
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Pichai encouraged employees to return to the office, but also gave everyone the option to stay at home.
“We are very pleased that we have begun to reopen our campus and encourage Google employees who feel safe about the open website to continue to do so,” Pichai said in an email.
With the increasing number of cases, Pichai explained that although this decision is at stake for his employees and full returns.
“At the same time, we recognize that many Google employees have seen their community surge due to the Delta variant and are worried about returning to the office.”
The email stated that after returning in October, he will allow employees to apply for work from home for the remainder of the year under “special circumstances”.
Pichai hopes that his discussions about extending work from home and compulsory vaccination will enable him to return to the office confidently.
“Seeing Google employees gathering in the office over the past few weeks has filled me with optimism, and I look forward to better days in the future,” he said.
“I hope these measures will give everyone more peace of mind when the office reopens.”
