Why Google Employees Are Getting $1K Each

A lot of Google employees are going to be working at home indefinitely—and the company is spending millions to make sure they have a good setup. CEO Sundar Pichal announced this week that every employee will be given an allowance of $1,000, or the equivalent in a different country, to buy home office furniture and other equipment, Fox reports. The CEO said the company plans to reopen more buildings in more cities on July 6, allowing employees to return on a rotating basis for around one day every couple of weeks, with buildings kept at 10% occupancy or less. Google has around 115,000 employees worldwide.

"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," Pichal wrote in a blog post. "Our goal is to be fair in the way we allocate time in the office, while limiting the number of people who come in, consistent with safety protocols." He said that in September—if conditions allow—the rotation program will be scaled up until buildings reach 30% occupancy. He said Google will also be "sharing more of our in-office experiences virtually, with a focus on health, wellness, and fun," including cooking lessons from Google chefs. (More Google stories.)