Google Now Sees Employees Returning to Offices in September

That is a shift from an earlier plan that had workers returning in July, and from one that would have required employees to return to work next month. Based in Mountain View, Calif., Alphabet said it had about 119,000 full-time workers as of the end of last year, according to its most recent annual company filing. It also hires contract workers.

Google also will pilot an option for employees to work at least three days a week in offices and do their jobs remotely the remainder of the days, according to the report.

Companies across the country transitioned workforces to remote work earlier this year to try to halt the spread of the coronavirus. As vaccines that treat Covid-19 now get distributed, businesses are sorting out when—and if, in some cases—they plan to require workers to start showing up at offices once again.

Netflix Inc. founder and co-Chief Executive Reed Hastings has said he hasn’t seen any benefits from the work-from-home trend and predicted workweeks would shift to having staff in offices four days a week, with one remote-working day. Executives at other companies have cited challenges with training, integrating new employees and finishing projects with workers plugging away from their houses.

However, other companies see more remote work in their futures. Twitter Inc. plans to allow most employees to continue working from home even after the pandemic. Facebook Inc. is moving toward having a substantially larger portion of employees working remotely. And copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. has considered getting rid of its headquarters in downtown Phoenix and letting staff meet as needed in a satellite office.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]