Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai (pictured) has sent this email to all staff extending the working-from-home option until June 30th 2021:

Hi everyone

I’m grateful for everything you’ve been doing to deliver on our mission and be helpful to our users and each other the past few months — I know it hasn’t been easy.

I’m pleased to say we’ve made good progress in bringing Googlers back into the office as local conditions have improved in a number of countries. With robust health and safety protocols in place, we’ve opened offices in 42 countries, and hope to reopen in many more as conditions permit. Please continue to look to your local leaders for updates on your site.

In other parts of the world, we haven’t reopened more widely. To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we’ll be extending our global voluntary work from home option through June 30, 2021 for roles that don’t need to be in the office. I hope this will offer the flexibility you need to balance work with taking care of yourselves and your loved ones over the next 12 months.

This means that most Googlers can continue working remotely from anywhere within the country of your assigned office through June 2021. If you are currently living in a country other than where your office is located, or are considering a move, please familiarize yourself with the FAQ and expect to hear from local leadership and People Operations.

We are still learning a lot from our experiences of working from home and will use that knowledge to inform our approach to the future of work at Google. I look forward to discussing this more with you in the coming weeks.

For now, go/coronavirus remains the best place for real-time information about our return to office and work from home approach, and go/cvmentalhealth has wellbeing resources. I know this extended timeline may come with mixed emotions and I want to make sure you’re taking care of yourselves.

Thanks again for everything you’re doing to support our users, our customers, and each other.