As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the globe, some companies have reopened offices but many more are still operating remotely.

Case in point is Google which will only reopen its offices in September 2021 according to a report by The New York Times.

Ahead of that though, chief executive officer of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) Sundar Pichai is reportedly looking at testing a hybrid working model.

Under this model, employees would work from the office for three days a week. The rest of the week would be completed at home or another remote location.

“We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being,” Pichai reportedly wrote in a memo to employees.

“No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid work force model — though a few are starting to test it — so it will be interesting to try,” the CEO said.

But this move has our suspicion raised.

Earlier this year Facebook said that it would allow employees to work from home permanently provided they agree to take a potential pay cut depending on where they live.

Whether Google will propose something similar remains to be seen but at least for now, working from home is an order rather than a request at the firm. Come September that might change but we really hope Google doesn’t decide to cut salaries because folks are working from home.

While the idea makes a degree of sense it’s also bizarre as the job you’re doing doesn’t change, it’s just the location. Besides, surely having to lease less space for employees is a cost-saving for a business, a cost-saving that could be passed along to employees.

The pandemic has up-ended many things and many businesses are still coming to grips with a new way of working. The next few years of the decade should prove interesting though, especially as relates to working environments.