Alphabet’s Google has revealed its internal policies to remote working, which had boomed during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, have become much stricter.

CNBC reported that it has viewed internal Google documents, which demand that some remote employees return to the office if they want to keep their jobs and avoid being part of broader cost cutting at the company.

Indeed, the documents reportedly instruct remote staffers that their roles may be at risk if they don’t start showing up at the closest office for a hybrid work schedule. Some of those employees were reportedly previously approved for remote working, CNBC noted.

Hybrid working

Alphabet’s Google is the process of axing staff from a number of its divisions.

Earlier this month it was reported that Google, after offering voluntary redundancy (aka buyout offers) in January, it has now laid off hundreds of employees in its ‘platforms and devices’ unit.

In February Google began offering staff in its ‘People Operations’ (aka Human Resources or HR) division so called buyout offers.

In the post pandemic world, CNBC reported that more companies are tightening their restrictions on remote work, forcing some staffers who moved to distant locations to reconsider their priorities if they want to maintain their employment.

Google’s HR head for example told staff in June 2023 that it would be cracking down on employees who were not adhering to the hybrid work schedule.

Google at the time had updated its hybrid work policy and it included tracking office badge attendance, confronting staff who aren’t coming in when they’re supposed to, and including the attendance in employees’ performance reviews.

Since 2023, most Google staff were expected in physical offices at least three days a week, mirroring similar arrangements at Meta, Amazon etc.

It came after CEO Sundar Pichai had in March 2023 addressed employee criticism of cost-cutting measures that had included a desk-sharing policy at its cloud unit. Pichai at the time reportedly said that “it feels like a ghost town” in some of the company’s offices, and he said that some staff are coming into the office “only two days a week.”

Divisional cuts

Now CNBC noted that after the thousands of layoffs Google carried out in 2023, the search engine giant has been carrying out more targeted cuts across various teams, emphasising the importance of its increased AI investments.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin reportedly told AI workers in February that they should be in the office every weekday, with 60 hours a week being “the sweet spot of productivity,” according to a memo viewed by CNBC.

Brin reportedly said the company has to “turbocharge” efforts to keep up with AI competition, which “has accelerated immensely.”

Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson, told CNBC that the decisions around remote worker return demands are based on individual teams and not a companywide policy.

“As we’ve said before, in-person collaboration is an important part of how we innovate and solve complex problems,” Mencini said in a statement to CNBC. “To support this, some teams have asked remote employees that live near an office to return to in-person work three days a week.”

According to one recent notice, employees in Google Technical Services were told that they’re required to switch to a hybrid office schedule or take a voluntary exit package. Remote employees in the unit are reportedly being offered a one-time paid relocation expense to move within 50 miles of an office.

Remote employees in human resources, or what Google calls People Operations, who live within 50 miles of an office, must choose to work in person on a hybrid basis by this month or their role will be eliminated, according to an internal memo, CNBC reported.

Mencini reportedly said they have to return by June.

Staffers in that unit who are approved for remote work and live more than 50 miles away from an office can keep their current arrangements, but will have to go hybrid if they want new roles at the company, the outlet reported.