Google will reportedly keep its employees home for another year

Alphabet Inc. has reportedly made a very forward-thinking decision for its employees around the world.

Google's parent company has decided its employees won't return to the office until at least next July as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, The Wall Street Journal reports. The decision will apply to Alphabet's nearly 200,000 full-time and contract employees across its major offices in th U.S., U.K., India, Brazil, and beyond, a person familiar with the matter said.

Before last week, Google had told employees to expect a return to the office in January. But Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai decided to change that guidance after talks with other top executives, and started letting other Google employees know about it soon after, the Journal reports. Uncertainty over school reopenings was reportedly a big factor in Pichai's decision. An official announcement may come as soon as Monday.

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Fellow tech giant Twitter decided in May to let its employees work from home forever, save for those who have to come into an office on occasion to maintain servers or do other in-person tasks. Twitter will also extend a work-from-home allowance to employees to upgrade their workspaces, likely treading a path other companies will follow not just to stop the spread of coronavirus but to cut office costs as well. Facebook has similarly said many of its employees will start working from home more regularly.