Google Adopts Hybrid Workweek, With 20% of Its Employees to Work Remotely -- Update
May 05 2021 - 4:12PM
Dow Jones News
By Tripp Mickle
Alphabet Inc.'s Google announced a series of moves to offer
employees more workplace flexibility, allowing a fifth of its staff
to work from home permanently and another fifth of workers to shift
to a different geographic location.
In an email on Wednesday, Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai
said the company envisions that about 20% of staff would work from
home on a permanent basis, while another 20% of staff would shift
to new offices. The remaining 60% of staff will work from their
current location. Employees will have to apply for both
location-change options, with approval being up to their
managers.
Google is also moving to a hybrid workweek, where employees work
from offices about three days a week, and two days "wherever they
work best," Mr. Pichai said in the email.
The company also will offer four weeks per year where staff can
work from anywhere with manager approval, a move that aims to give
employees more flexibility around summer and holiday travel.
"The future of work is flexibility," Mr. Pichai said. He said
the changes aimed to help staff do their best work.
Google has been at the forefront of the move by tech companies
to relax requirements that the workforce be in the office.
Salesforce Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others have adopted
hybrid-work policies where staff will be able to work remotely
during part of the week.
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said he
expects as much as half of the company's workforce -- currently
numbering more than 45,000 -- to work from home within 10
years.
The flexibility embraced by tech contrasts with major banks such
as Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan, which expect most of their
workforces to return to the office following the pandemic.
The closure of offices during the pandemic has forced major
employers to reevaluate the value of having people in the same
physical space. With tools such as Zoom allowing people to continue
to meet remotely, many companies are adopting a hybrid approach,
noting that offices remain important to collaborating and
preserving a workplace culture.
Google, which has 140,000 employees, is headquartered in
Mountain View, Calif. and the majority of its staff work in the Bay
Area. However, it has offices in 19 states, with campus locations
including New York City, Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
Mr. Pichai said that compensation will be adjusted for employees
who change locations.
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 05, 2021 15:57 ET (19:57 GMT)
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