Google has decided that most of its 200,000 employees and contractors should work from home through next June. It's a sobering assessment of the pandemic’s potential staying power from the company that provides the answers for the world’s most trusted internet search engine.
The remote-work order issued Monday by Google CEO Sundar Pichai also affects other companies owned by Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. It marks a six-month extension of Google’s previous plan to keep most of its offices closed through the rest of this year.
The prolonged lockdown of Google’s offices could influence other major employers to take similar precautions.