Massive delays in US company return-to-office plans — blame the Delta variant

• Companies are now rethinking their return-to-office plans due to the Delta variant.
• Google will delay returning to the office until mid-October.
• Facebook is requiring employees to get vaccinated if they want to work in the office.

Could a countrywide return-to-the-office be on pause due to rising Delta variant cases?

The prospect of workers returning to the office hit a speed bump on Tuesday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised fully vaccinated people to begin wearing masks in public indoor settings again.

The mask recommendation targets areas with “substantial and high” COVID-19 transmission rates, currently about two-thirds of US counties.

As of now, the CDC said schools — from teachers, staff, students, and visitors — should all wear masks, regardless of vaccination status and community transmission rates.

The rise of the Delta variant, the most dominant strain of COVID in the US, is causing companies, including Google, to rethink their return-to-work strategies.

Google, Facebook and Apple delay returns to the office

Google announced Wednesday that it had postponed its return to the office for most workers until mid-October, weeks after it has previously targeted Sept. 1 as the date.

Most employees at Google will begin to return on Oct. 18, and the plan is to roll out a policy to make sure everyone working is vaccinated once their campuses are fully reopened.

“This extension will allow us time to ramp back into work while providing flexibility for those who need it,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai in an email.

Google workers will be given a 30-day notice before they are required to return.

While Facebook had already told full-time employees that they could continue working remotely beyond the pandemic, those that hope to return to the office will have to be vaccinated.

The company made an announcement on Wednesday after Google’s call for workers to be vaccinated.

“As our offices reopen, we will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our US campuses to be vaccinated,” VP of People Lori Goler said in a statement. “How we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations.”

Apple also delayed its reopening, but no date has been set. CEO Tim Cook said the unpredictability of the Delta variant has made a return tough.

“As the last 18 months have demonstrated many times before, progress made is not progress guaranteed. An uneven recovery to the pandemic and the Delta variant surging in many countries around the world have shown us once again that the road to recovery will be a winding one,” he said.

What’s the rush to get back to the office?

Many workers are comfortable working remotely. The majority want to stay at home or have some form of a hybrid schedule moving forward. Companies, on the other hand, are the ones pushing for workers to come back.

Wall Street’s bigwigs were desperate for the return of workers; even Apple CEO Tim Cook said he didn’t envision a remote-work future due to the limits of online collaboration.

But Kate Lister, President of the employer researcher group Global Workplace Analytics, told CNBC that requiring in-person attendance too soon could harm workers’ perception of the office and what purpose it actually serves.

“What if the place looked like a ghost town because so few people returned? Would that lead them to question whether it was worth it?” Lister told the outlet. “If you were coming to the office because you miss your colleagues, would you really get the experience you were looking for?