SLTAR PICHAI, CEO of Google and Alphabet Inc., speaks in the opening forum of business, government and society at Stanford Graduate Business School in Stanford, California, on April 3, 2024.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Five years retired from the Onet from the Covid pandemic, Google It requires that some remote employees return to the office if they are because to maintain their jobs and avoid being part of broader cost cuts in the company.
Several units inside Google They have told remote employees that their roles may be at risk if they do not begin to appear in the closest office for a hybrid work schedule, according to the internal documents seen by CNBC. Some of those employees were previously approved for remote work.
As the pandemic summarizes more in the rearview mirror, more companies are pressing their restrictions in remote work, forcing some employees who moved to distant locations to reconsider their priorities if they wish to accumulate their employment. The change in tone is particularly acute in the technology industry, which increased so aggressively in flexible work arrangements in 2020 that the San Francisco commercial market is still struggling to recover.
Google offers offers of some voluntary purchases of the full -time employees of the United States at the beginning of 2025, and some remote employees were told that they would only choose if they did the closest office at least three days a week.
The latest threats land at a time when Google and many of their technology partners seek to reduce costs, while simultaneous houses invest money in artificial intelligence, which requires expenses hindered in infrastructure and technical talent. Since he made generalized dismissals in early 2023, Google has made specific cuts in several teams, emphasizing the importance of increasing AI investments.
At the end of last year, Google had around 183,000 employees, compared to approximately 190,000 two years before.
Google’s co -founder Sergey Brin, told AI workers in February that they should be in the office every day of the week, 60 hours a week “the optimal point of productivity”, according to a memo seen by CNBC. Brin said the company has to “turbocharger” of efforts to keep up with AI competition, which “has accelerated greatly.”
Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesman, said that decisions on the demands for the return of remote workers are based on individual equipment and not on a policy of the entire company.
“As we have said before, collaboration in person is an important part of how we innovate and solve complex problems,” said Mentini in a statement to CNBC. “To support this, some teams have asked remote employees to live near an office to return to work in person three days a week.”
According to a recent warning, Google Technical Services employees were told to change to a hybrid office schedule or take a voluntary output package. The remote employees of the unit are offered a unique paid relocation expense to move within the 50 miles of an office.
Remote employees in human resources, or what Google calls people’s operations, living within 50 miles in an office, must be in person in a basic hybrid in mid -April or their role will be eliminated, according to an internal note. The employees of that unit that are approved for remote work and live more than 50 miles away from an office can keep their current arrangements, but they will have to go to Go Hybrid if they want new roles in the company.
Google previously offered a full -time voluntary starting program based in the US.
That occurred after the company said in January that it would offer volunteer output packages to full -time employees in the US. In the group of platforms and devices, which includes Android, Chrome and products such as Fitbit and Nest. The unit has made cuts to almost two equipment of boxes from this month. While internal correspondence indicated that remote work was a factor in layoffs, Mencini said it was not a main consideration for changes.
A year ago, Google combined its Android unit with its hardware group under the leadership of Rick Osterloh, a senior vice president. Osterloh said in January that the voluntary departure plan can be adequate for employees fighting with hybrid work schedule.
Mencini told CNBC that, since the groups merged, the team “has focused on becoming more agile and operating more effective and this included making some work reductions in addition to the voluntary output program.” He added that the unit continues to hire in the United States already worldwide.
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