Alphabet’s Google said on Tuesday it would reopen buildings in more cities at roughly 10 percent of their capacity beginning July 6 and scale it up to 30 percent in September, if conditions permit.
Google and its peer Facebook allowed their employees to work from home in early March following tough government-mandated restrictions to contain the coronavirus.
Google said on Tuesday it would give each employee an allowance of $1,000, or the equivalent value in their country, to expense necessary equipment and office furniture, as it expects most of them to largely work from home for the remainder of the year.
There are a limited number of employees whose roles are needed back in the office this year and they would return on a limited, rotating basis, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.
Google will reimburse employees up to $1,000 to pay for equipment to help them work from home, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote to employees on Tuesday.
The move shows how one of the world’s most highly valued companies is attempting to bring back normal operations following the onset of coronavirus, which has killed over 347,000 people to date and impacted Google parent Alphabet’s business.
Google was one of the first companies to tell all employees to work from home, and has managed expectations throughout the pandemic, at one point informing them that they could not expense items like food (to replace free food served in cafeterias) or gym memberships.
