Google employees worldwide received an unexpected Christmas gift this season. According to Reuters, the trillion-dollar tech company announced Wednesday that they’re gifting employees $1600 bonuses after postponing a plan to return to the office.
The company will provide a one-time $1600 bonus to the extended workforce and interns currently employed through the company; the funds will be equivalent to the value based on where the employee lives.
A spokesperson said that Google employees were permitted to work from home and received an allowance and wellbeing bonus to support them during the pandemic. Reuters reported that the company has also set aside an unknown amount of funds strictly for this purpose.
Earlier in March, Google’s internal survey displayed a drop in its employee wellbeing over the past year, after the company announced a series of benefits, including a $500 wellbeing cash bonus.
The new payment was a decision based on looming fears from employees who were reluctant about the company’s vaccine mandate and the new omicron variant that has been rapidly spreading across the nation.
First detected in South Africa, the omicron variant has spread worldwide, including the United States. However, initial reports from public health experts say that the variant is not as severe as the delta variant that attacked many vaccinated people over the summer, per The Hill.
“It’s too early to be able to determine the precise severity of disease, but inklings that we are getting, and we must remember these are still in the form of anecdotal … but it appears that with the cases that are seen, we are not seeing a very severe profile of disease,” Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious diseases expert, said during a White House briefing this week.
Google initially had a return-to-office plan for Jan. 10. However, there is no word for a possible new date.
