Google and Uber delay office returns amid omicron uncertainty

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Business

Google and Uber delay office returns amid omicron uncertainty

By Marisa Iati
Today at 4:33 p.m. EST

For companies whose employees are still toiling from their couches at home, the question of when to bring their full workforces back to the office has become even trickier.

In a pandemic when many decisions have hinged on risk tolerance, the coronavirus’s new omicron variant has complicated the process of calculating those hazards. Major corporations that had planned to shepherd all their employees back into offices in early 2022 now have to decide whether those dates make sense in light of further evidence of the pandemic’s unpredictability.

“There remains so much uncertainty, and uncertainty equals instability,” said Lars Schmidt, an author and podcast host who focuses on the future of work. “So when you’re trying to pretend that doesn’t exist and push people back into something they’re not ready for, you’re going to be met with resistance from employees.”

Last week, Google and Uber became some of the first major employers in the United States to announce that they would postpone their Jan. 10 return date — not to another specific day, but indefinitely. Ford Motor Co. said Monday that it was pushing its expected return from January to March.

Several other major companies said they had no updates on their plans to return to their offices early next year or did not respond to inquiries from The Washington Post.

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Emily Guskin contributed to this report.

By Marisa Iati
Marisa Iati is a reporter for the General Assignment News Desk at The Washington Post. She previously worked at the Star-Ledger and NJ.com in New Jersey, where she covered municipal mayhem, community issues, education and crime. Twitter https://twitter.com/marisa_iati

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/06/omicron-return-to-office/

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Major corporations that had planned to bring all their employees back into offices in early 2022 now have to decide whether those dates make sense in light of further evidence of the pandemic’s unpredictability.

Link to tweet

[Orrex]

1. Companies will happily sacrifice productivity in order to maintain authoritarian control of workers

And also, incidentally, to maintain the illusion that so many managers are needed.

[NBachers]

2. Google and Uber are merging. The new company will be called Goober.