Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday, September 1, announced that Google has extended the work-from-home option till January 10, 2022, stating that conditions are starting to improve, but the pandemic continues to create uncertainty in many parts of the world. He added that countries and teams can decide after January whether to end WFH based on local conditions. The employees will be given a 30-day heads-up before they are expected to report to offices, the company announced. 

Earlier in May, Pichai had announced that about 20% of Google's workforce will continue to work remotely after its offices reopen later this year, while about 60% of Google employees will come together in the office for a few days a week. However, in a new statement, Sundar Pichai said that the road ahead may be “a little longer and bumpier.” “As offices continue to reopen, we hope to see more teams coming together where possible, whether it be for regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions around a whiteboard, or outdoor socials. For some locations, conditions are starting to improve, yet in many parts of the world, the pandemic continues to create uncertainty. Acknowledging that, we’ll extend our global voluntary return-to-office policy through January 10, 2022, to give more Googlers flexibility and choice as they ramp back,” Pichai said.

Google has also announced two global reset days for the next quarter— on October 22 and December 17, 2021. “The road ahead may be a little longer and bumpier than we hoped, yet I remain optimistic that we will get through it together. It’s heartening to see Googlers starting to come back to more offices globally. The ability to reconnect in person has been re-energizing for many of us, and will make us even more effective in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks for all the great work thus far; look forward to a busy Q4 as we continue to find new ways to be helpful to people everywhere,” he added. 

As per the financial details released in Q1 2021, Google has 139,995 full-time employees worldwide. While Google doesn't disclose country-specific headcount, the company is estimated to have over 4,000 people in India.

Google has been investing in India as a strategic hub for its global product development. It has been expanding its employee base across product areas like Search, Cloud, Payments, AI research and has presence in four cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gurugram.