Google, Uber push back returns to office

Major tech companies Google and Uber have both postponed their office reopening dates indefinitely into 2022 due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 omicron variant.

As The Washington Post reported, both companies have postponed their returns to the office, previously planned for Jan. 10, to indefinite times in 2022. These postponements come after the companies had already pushed back their returns multiple times throughout 2021.

In a memo that was obtained by CNBC, Google's vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, told employees that the company will wait until next year to assess when they will be able to safely return to offices.

Will people ever go back to the office after being remote all this time?

That is a key question of this decade.

Two years ago one of our SILs, a key person in the company she worked at, developed Pancreatic Cancer and was successfully treated. In the early part of her treatment, she was to avoid basically any human contact besides her husband.

Her company set up a fully equipped office in one of her unused guest bedrooms.

About the time she was supposed to return to work, early into this year, her husband had a severe stroke. So, she continued to stay at home for her office/company work.

Now, she goes to her real office once a week on Friday for about half of a day. She will never return to full time in the office.

One of my wife’s long time friends was the office manager in the medical office, where my wife worked as an RN.

This woman was basically stolen by a large group of dentists to be their office manager, and she supposedly retired 2 years ago. They now have set up a fully equipped office in her condo, and she does her job in her home, a few days a week. She still gets her retirement pay and is paid as an outside consultant for the work she does in her home.

One of our grand kids is in his 3rd year of a engineering degree. He had an home office in his parents home and worked out of there about 50% of the time. This summer he average 2-3 days per week in that home office.

When he went back to college this, fall his company set up an office in the home he shares while attending college. He worked basically one full day in the office/week and sometimes a few hours when needed.

That college office is closed now due to his finals. He will return to his parents home this weekend. Then, for about 5-6 weeks during the break he will work out of his home office and the regular brick/mortar office. When he returns to college for the second term, he will be back to working out of his office there one day a week.

A neighbor, who lines up medical research just closed his downtown office and now works out his home for a different company. The other company expected him to be in their provided office 24/7. Now, we see him on a regular basis about every 2 hours walking his new English Bull puppy and smiling and enjoying life again.

Possibly, the old grind of commuting to a corporate office, doing their thing for 8+ hours and commuting home will become a relic and not used anymore.

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