Google to reimburse employees up to $1,000 for at-home office supplies

Google announced it will reimburse employees up to $1,000 to pay for supplies essential for working from home amid the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Sundar Pichai said in a Tuesday memo to employees.

Pichai, 47, also outlined plans on how the company will open its offices using a phased approach, with employees rotating through offices at 10 percent capacity in early July and ramping up to 30 percent capacity by September.

“This will give Googlers who need to come back to the office — or, capacity permitting, who want to come back — the opportunity to return on a limited, rotating basis (think: one day every couple of weeks, so roughly 10 percent building occupancy),” Pichai wrote in the email, which was published on a Google blog.

“We’ll have rigorous health and safety measures in place to ensure social distancing and sanitization guidelines are followed, so the office will look and feel different than when you left,” he added.

Facebook announced last week the company has modified its remote working policy to allow almost all employees to work from home for the remainder of the year, with plans to operate at around 25 percent capacity in its office buildings over the next several months.

Earlier this month, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey informed employees that they can continue working from home “forever” if they so choose.

“When we do decide to open offices, it also won’t be a snap back to the way it was before. It will be careful, intentional, office by office and gradual,” said Dorsey.