Google has decided to give its employees another day off as "collective wellbeing". The company declared September 4, as a “collective wellbeing”, one-time paid holiday for all its employees to relieve them from stress. Google extended this holiday during Labor Day (first Monday of September) in the US, to a full-time holiday for all its permanent employees and interns. However, temporary employees, vendors or contractors do not fall in this category. Google encourages its workforce to take this holiday and also tells managers to inform their teams to reprioritise work to do so. Work From Home Norms Extended for BPOs And IT Companies Till December 31, Says Union Govt.

However, if a manager has an “urgent business-critical need” wherein an employee has to work at the last minute, then she or he will be free to take the next available working day off. The development comes as one of the ways to extend support to the employees who will be working remotely until at least mid-2021 due to the current COVID-19 pandemic induced situation.

According to CNBC, the internal forum for employees said that it allows people who need the day to work open, giving them an alternate day to take off. Earlier when the pandemic began, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had also called for a day off. As not all Google teams will be able to take a day off, including support and teams responding to customer needs, they will 'explore something similar,' to ensure they too, get the time-out.

Here's How Twitterati Reacted:

What Do You Think?

A Much Required Step!

As the news of Google's Friday off went viral, social media users couldn't be happier. Netizens said that they also wanted a day off, some even suggested that companies should come together and decided to give a day off for wellbeing of mental health. Work from home seems to be the future of work as the current situation continues. Also, there could be an increase in mental health issues faced by people. Hence, it is important for authorities to take measures that will help their citizens or individuals in future.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 08, 2020 06:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).