Google to relax vaccine, mask, social distancing rules for employees – Times of India

Soon, it will be two years since life was ‘normal’ and people went about their business as usual. Sometime in March 2020, tech companies told their employees to work from home. However, it looks like normalcy is coming back, at least as far as Google is concerned. According to a report by CNBC, Google employees in San Francisco Bay Area were informed that the tech giant is easing some rules for coming back to the office. The report says that David Radcliffe, vice president, Google Real Estate and Workplace Services told employees that mandates around testing, wearing masks, vaccines and social distancing were being relatively eased.
The report states that Google has also informed employees that certain perks will be reinstated. Google will give access to employees to fitness centres, massages, restore shuttle service. Further, Google will also open its informal spaces like game rooms, music rooms and lounges. “We’re at the beginning of a journey, so the office experience will feel pretty similar to what it was like pre-Covid,” Radcliffe told employees, as per the CNBC report. “We’re designing and piloting options to support new ways of working together and we’ll gather insights, data and feedback to help us learn as we go,” he further added.
Another Google spokesperson told CNBC that the company will not make it mandatory for its employees to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Earlier in November 2021, Google had told employees that they would have to get compulsorily get vaccinated. However, now it has changed that rule but not given any explanation why the company went back on the vaccination policy. Though employees who are unvaccinated will have to follow strict protocols like getting tested, wearing masks among others.
Google hasn’t so far set any return date for its employees to resume work from the office. The report also adds that in the last week about 30% of employees did come back to its Bay Area offices.