***** [Irony] Google attempting to claw back to office already approved remote
workers *****
In addition to the crackdown (via demerits on performance reviews) on workers already in the now "standard" hybrid three days in the office #Google model (as I described yesterday), who are felt to not be meeting that schedule adequately, it also appears that Google is attempting to push already approved full remote workers to move to that hybrid model "if they are near a Google office". Many Google workers are already approved for full remote, and various open Google jobs have been listed as "remote eligible", sometimes along with a specific Google office designation, sometimes with broad designations like "U.S."
It now appears that Google is hell bent to fill that expensive office space they've built, an irony for a firm that develops world-class video conferencing, advanced telepresence tools, and cloud computing resources that all help enable remote working, eliminating vast amounts of commuting, pollution, and associated disrupted lives in the process.
Ironic.
The Kafkaesque elements of forcing workers to sit in front of screens at the office doing exactly what they could be doing in front of screens at home is most notably bizarre.
Googlers who have contacted me about this have noted that these new announcements came without prior warning, and the terms under which "exceptions" will be made to these policies have not been articulated
at this time.
I think it's fair to say that this is yet another blow to Google workers morale, and seems contradictory to Google's presumed goal of keeping the best possible people at the firm. -L
@lauren I think #Google is forgetting the old wisdom that brought about microkitchens and perks at work in the first place... You're not competing with other companies to hire and retain Googlers, you're competing with *the Googlers themselves,* the alternate lifestyle where instead of working for your conglomerate they freelance or form their own startups. Why should they come work for you when they could work from home where the snacks are in the kitchen?
This generation of Google leadership seems to be excited to test that hypothesis. We'll see how it works out for their retention numbers.
@mtomczak I assume that they will be able to keep their numbers up hiring directly from colleges and such. But the institutional knowledge of senior employees who are leaving is pretty much irreplaceable, and a signal that the firm is in trouble. I keep thinking about what happened to DEC.
@lauren Definitely possible, but interesting to see how it will go.
A firm's ability to pull straight from colleges is directly tied to reputation. Right now, Google has great rep in spite of everything (this may be more a comment on the industry as a whole than on choices Google has made, but I digress). But rep can shift rapidly and students are fickle.
I remember when IBM started running ads that were basically "Come work for us."
@mtomczak Old folk saying: As go the perks, go the employees.