Google Employees To Not Return To Offices Until July 2021: Report

Google Scott Olson/Getty Images

Nearly all of the 200,000 employee at Google will have to wait at least another year before they can return to work at the company’s in-person offices.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the news Monday after a report by the Wall Street Journal. It makes the tech giant one of the first major United States corporations to extend its return timeline for over a year. While other large corporations are planning for a January return to their offices — like Microsoft — Google will wait until July 2021 to return to in-person work in most of its locations. Exceptions include offices in Australia, Greece and Thailand.

While quarantine has continued, Google announced its new initiatives in technology, which include a new version of Google glass, virtual reality devices, and high-tech temporary tattoos.

Google, which is the modern default search engine and dominant force as an email, calendar, and mapping platform, among others, has come under fire for its treatment of conservative media organizations over the last month, too.

In June, Google threatened to ban the Federalist from its advertising over the site’s comment section. The warning prompted Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to introduce new legislation targeting big tech from receiving the protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act unless they revised their terms of service. A month later, a list of conservative news sites briefly vanished from Google search results — the platform blamed it on a “technical error.”