Google promised employees an extra $1,600 cash bonus after the Omicron variant delayed its return to office plan

• Google is offering employees around the world a fresh $1,600 cash bonus.
• The move comes shortly after the firm pushed its return-to-office plans back further into 2022.

Google has promised staff around the world an additional cash bonus of $1,600 after pushing back its planned return-to-office further into 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic has induced many big tech companies — including Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft — to hand out top-up bonuses, in an effort to both help employees adapt their remote working set-up, but also to attract and retain talent in uncertain times.

Earlier this year, a leaked internal survey of Google staff saw general wellbeing on the decline, prompting CEO Sundar Pichai to announce a series of additional wellness benefits, including a one-off company-wide holiday in March, a $500 cash bonus, and an extra "wellness" day tacked on any time Googlers take four vacation days.

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Now Reuters reports, citing a company spokesperson, that Google employees around the world will receive the equivalent of a $1,600 bonus in December. That includes its extended workforce of data center vendors and interns. The spokesperson didn't say how much this would cost Google in total.

The move comes shortly after Google postponed its return to the office for US employees past its original target of January 10 2022. The company also pushed back its return to offices in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

The tech giant will now wait until next year to assess when locations should reopen, and local conditions will play into the decision-making. US workers at Google who want to work from the office have been able to do so.

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