Google encourages return to face-to-face work – 06/08/2023 – Market

In an effort to encourage a return to face-to-face work, Google will take account of attendance records in the office in employee performance reviews – and even send reminders when there are frequent absences.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will also authorize new requests to work remotely full-time only on an exceptional basis.

Most employees already follow Google’s hybrid work policy, which calls for about three days of work in the office a week, wrote people director Fiona Cicconi in an email obtained by the American newspaper. The message announcing the changes was sent on Wednesday (7).

In the text, Fiona says that the company heard from “Googlers”, as employees are called, that those who spend at least three days a week in the office feel more connected to other “Googlers”. For her, “there is no doubt that working together in the same room makes a positive difference”.

This week, however, employees were unable to travel to offices in Canada and the US East Coast, due to smoke from hundreds of wildfires in the region.

Since 2021, Google has invested in resuming face-to-face work. Amazon, Walt Disney and Apple are also trying to encourage employees to return to their offices. Tesla even asked employees to return to the office or leave the company.

“If you don’t show up, let’s assume you quit,” Elon Musk said in an email in June, demanding at least 40 hours a week at the office.

However, many professionals are resistant to the measures, including in Brazil. A survey by Mercer Brasil, carried out last November, points out that 76% of companies still feel insecure about the loss of productivity in hybrid or totally remote work. The survey also shows that 7 out of 10 employees would like to stay hybrid working.