Twitter, Google latest big companies to delay office returns

Two more major tech companies are dialing back plans for a return to the office, in the latest reaction to the spread of the Delta variant.

Google will not be requiring its employees to return to the office until October, with no employees required to report in-person until Oct. 18, the New York Post reported. There is a chance the return date will be pushed back again, though employees will receive 30 days’ notice.

The company expects its employees to work in-person at least three days a week post-pandemic.

The delay isn’t the only significant change from Google: The search giant will also mandate vaccination, according to the Post.

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Google is the first major tech company to require its employees to get vaccinated. The only exemptions will be for medical or other other protected reasons.

Twitter has also shifted its position in response to the surging Delta variant, re-closing offices in New York and San Francisco, the Post reported. The San Francisco office had only been reopened for a couple of weeks.

Earlier, Twitter said that employees had the option of working remotely indefinitely.

This month, Apple also pushed back plans to return to the office, delaying it from September to October at the earliest.

With many of the bigger employers beginning to retreat to remote work for at least the next couple of months, smaller employers are likely to follow suit. Firms, by and large, are still paying rent on their office space, but the pullback announcements could further complicate office landlords’ efforts to lease out their available space.

[NYP] — Holden Walter-Warner