‘Being treated like school children’: Google employees on stricter work from home policy

The decision has left many Google employees disappointed and frustrated, who as per a CNBC report believe that the management is overreaching in its oversight of physical attendance. 

Staffers are expressing their discontent through memes and posts to an internal site called Memegen. Google employees say that they are being treated like school children. “If you cannot attend the office today, your parents should submit an absence request,” reads one top-rated meme posted by an employee as mentioned in the CNBC report. It had a picture of Fiona Cicconi in front of a chalkboard. Another highly rated meme said, “check my work, not my badge.”

Another issue concerning Google employees is the increased uncertainty about what the future holds, especially for people who have moved to different cities and states after they were cleared to work from remote locations.

A Google spokesperson said that the badge data collected is “aggregated” for company leaders. “Now that we’ve fully transitioned to the hybrid work week, company leaders can see reports showing how their teams are adopting the hybrid work model,” the spokesperson said in a statement, adding Google doesn’t “share individual Googler badge data” in its reports.

An internal document suggests how group leaders will learn who hasn’t been in the office frequently enough. According to it, managers will send reminders to staff who are “consistently absent from the office”.

“Managers of non-remote Googlers who have been consistently absent from the office will be cc’ed on emails to these Googlers (subject to local requirements), so they can support Googlers in either ramping back to the office or exploring other flexibility options,” the document says.

Updated: 14 Jun 2023, 10:50 AM IST