- By Talib Khan
- Fri, 08 May 2020 01:34 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: The coronavirus pandemic have forced almost every company to let their workers work from home as the social distancing and isolation seems to be the only way so far to prevent this deadly contagion, which has afflicted more than 3.9 million people globally and killed over 2.5 lakh.
Keeping in mind the only way possible of prevention, technology giants Google and Facebook have announced an extension of their work from home flexibility to their workers.
Also Read: Lockdown 2.0 | MNCs, BPOs in Gurugram may have to work from home till July end: Official
According to a report by BBC, search engine Google has extended its work from home flexibility for seven more months till the end of this year. Earlier the California-based company had said that it will keep its work from home policy till June 1, 2020 and reopen afterwards.
Whereas, social media giant Facebook said that it will reopen its offices from July 6, 2020, as the coronavirus-induced lockdowns will gradually be lifted by then. Google chief Sundar Pichai, as reported by BBC said that the employees who need to return to the offices can start coming back from July with enhanced safety measures in place.
But the majority of employees who can carry out their jobs from home will be able to do so until the end of the year, Pichai added.
"Facebook has taken the next step in its return to work philosophy. Today, we announced anyone who can do their work remotely can choose to do so through the end of the year," a spokesman of Facebook said, as quoted by BBC.
"As you can imagine this is an evolving situation as employees and their families make important decisions re: return to work”, adding, “Facebook is still determining which employees will be asked to come in”.
Facebook was among the first tech firms who asked its employees to start working from home. Facebook gave employees $1,000 (£807) bonuses for their work-from-home and childcare costs.
The trend for working from home may suit some companies while they redesign their office spaces to cater to new social distancing guidelines.
