Two of the Bay Area’s largest tech giants continue to adjust their post-pandemic return-to-work plans as they prepare to start welcoming employees back into the office on a more regular basis.
Earlier this week, Google announced that it will be reopening all of its California-based offices on a voluntary basis starting on July 12. This announcement follows Google’s decision to require most workers to be back in the office at least three days a week starting in September.
Google employees will not be required to get vaccinated but will be required to provide proof of vaccination if they wish to remove their masks in the workplace. Those who are not vaccinated or do not provide proof of vaccination will be required to wear a mask and will be subject to weekly coronavirus testing.
Apple is still facing internal opposition after announcing that employees will be required to be in the office at least three days a week starting in September, similar to Google’s plan.
After the announcement, a group of Apple employees wrote a letter claiming that some were being forced to quit because of the return-to-work policy and requested that all individual teams be given the opportunity to work remotely.
However, Apple is standing its ground, reportedly telling works this week in an internal email that remote work requests will be handled on a case-by-case basis and will require executive approval. Fully remote positions will be extremely limited, according to the update.