Google employees return to work in the office three days a week after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Illustration photo. (Source: Getty Images)

Google, a pioneer in the technology industry, strictly enforces a policy that requires employees to work in the office at least three days a week.

Google spokesman Ryan Lamont said the new policy “is going well and we want to see employees connect and collaborate in person, so we are limiting remote work, with exceptions.”

yt

Lamont said company leaders are looking at reports of how their employees are adopting different work practices. The company has been working on a hybrid work-from-home model for more than a year, and “we are formally integrating it into all of our workplace policies,” he said.

The Unwanted

The new policy has left many employees frustrated. Chris Schmidt, a Google software engineer, told CNN that “the company ignores the professionalism of its employees and instead implements attendance and ties it to employee performance reviews. The new policy creates unnecessary hardship for employees and shows no consideration for the diverse life circumstances of employees.”

Google isn’t the only one facing employee resistance: Other tech companies are also struggling to figure out how best to get employees back into the office after they’ve become accustomed to working remotely. The tug-of-war is further complicated by the fact that tech companies have laid off tens of thousands of workers over the past year.

At Amazon, tensions boiled over last week when hundreds of employees staged a walkout to call attention to their grievances, including the company’s three-day workweek, which will be implemented from May 2023.

Amazon employee Pamela said at the march that she created an online chat room on Slack called Remote Advocacy to provide a space for employees to discuss the impact of the company's return-to-work policy on their lives.

“The chat room is now up to 33,000 people,” Pamela told the crowd at the march, calling the pro-remote work chat “the most visible expression of employee dissatisfaction in the company.”

Still, employee pushback doesn't change the fact that these companies have spent billions of dollars on workplace space for years and often talk about the value of workplace interaction.

In response to the walkout, Amazon said it may take time for employees to adjust to returning to the office for longer periods of time. It was happy to see more people back in the office in the first month, claiming “energy, collaboration, and connection” in the company’s environment.

Facebook's parent company, Meta, is also making an effort, announcing that employees will return to work three days a week starting in September. A Meta spokesperson told CNN that the policy is not rigid and that employees assigned to work remotely will continue to do so.

According to software engineer Chris Schmidt, when all workers come to work in the office, there is no guarantee that you will have enough space to sit and work.

“Many teams are working remotely, and for some of our roles, we may not need to collaborate with anyone in the office,” he said. “Right now, many companies in New York don’t even have enough desks and conference rooms for employees to comfortably use.”

Adjust the appropriate working method

The Covid-19 pandemic has been controlled, countries are returning to normal life, businesses are gradually increasing the number of direct employees, moving towards all workers returning to the office.

“I love working remotely because it’s convenient and efficient. As long as I have a laptop with an internet connection, I can multitask and work from anywhere,” said Samie Dorgham, an employee at an AI startup in London.

In the US, collected data shows that job-hopping and labor shortages in businesses are at high levels, while companies are struggling to recruit and retain workers.

A poll conducted by US survey company ADP with the participation of 33,000 people worldwide showed that two-thirds of respondents said they could find a new job, if forced to return to the office full-time unnecessarily.

Business Insider (US) even headlined that Gen Z will quit if they have to return to the office. The imbalance between the number of job seekers and the number of workers needed to fill vacancies is causing wages in some industries to increase.

Nowadays, many companies have applied technology to reduce labor density in the workplace.

Food packaging plants, indoor manufacturing and warehousing have accelerated the deployment of robots. Robots are being used to assist in hospital and hotel room service orders. Demand for ordering applications in restaurants and hotels is increasing. Many companies are adding self-checkout to grocery stores and pharmacies. Companies are increasingly interested in robotic process automation to handle paperwork and reduce density in office spaces.

“We deserve a voice in shaping the policies that impact our lives, to establish clear, transparent and fair working conditions for all,” said Chris Schmidt.

It can be seen that finding appropriate measures to adjust working methods will be an important condition to maintain the operations of many businesses and organizations in the context of the economy recovering after Covid-19.