Google plans to keep its almost 200,000 full-time and contract employees working remotely until at least July 2021. The company is in no rush to return to the office as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent a mail to employees confirming the plan.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Pichai made the call following a meeting with the company’s top executives.

A Google spokesperson confirms that Pichai sent an email to employees announcing the plan: “To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office,” Pichai wrote.

Previously, Google had the plan to reopen some of its offices for a limited number of employees from 6th July 2020. However, it made the return to physical offices optional.

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This time though, the WSJ reports that Pichai is establishing a more specific time frame to keep Google employees working remotely partly to give them and their families more certainty about how long they would be working from home, as many are struggling with inconsistent direction from school districts.

Facebook, Twitter, and Square have announced their own plans to keep employees working remotely indefinitely. However, what remains to be seen is the impact Google’s new decision will have on the tech industry.

Google would be the first tech company to extend its remote working policy into the middle of next year. According to WSJ, Google’s decision to keep its employees remote until next year could have ripple effects. Companies who scheduled their employees to return to the office as soon as January 2021 might extend their decisions.

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