Last month, Google Cloud announced a new desk-sharing office policy that requires cloud employees and partners to share their desks.
Some employees have expressed concern over the new policy, but Google CEO Sundar Pichai stands by the company’s decision, saying that “it feels like a ghost town” in some of the company’s offices.
- These policy changes are known as Cloud Office Evolution and affect Google Cloud employees in New York City, Kirkland, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco, and Sunnyvale, California.
- The new desk-sharing office model is seen as a way for Google to reduce its real estate costs amid inflation and rising rents.
- Pichai stated that many employees are only coming to the office “two days a week,” which he argues does not maximize the use of current space.
- According to Anas Osman, Google Cloud’s VP of strategy and operations, data from a pilot “shows that Googlers reported significantly better collaboration when they had assigned days in the office.”
- Widespread employee concerns regarding the policy include how the implementation of the policy was communicated with staff and that Google is attempting to portray every cost-cutting measure as “sounding good for employees” when that isn’t always the case.
