Also Google themselves would have a huge issue justifying their own real estate if people aren't in it "post covid". They are a publicly traded company so they would be forced to sell it off to appease investors.
All in all I think Google has shown it's true colors here. They don't have a damn about their employees. This reeks of boomer micromanaging 101.
I think that to fight this stockholders should push Alphabet to sell of their properties now. Should do the same with Amazon as well.
That's exactly how I feel.
Giving it up would mean changing the culture and the value prop of working there. I can’t say I’m surprised they don’t want to do that.
I guess FB must have seen the same thing, hence full remote for senior engineers. It's odd that Google haven't experienced this issue.
Obviously the office is a part of the culture, and most employees want to be in the office at least some of the time. But to me, that doesn't explain why you can't offer a remote option for the employees who want it.
A charitable explanation might be what we've heard from execs: we don't want to rush to go remote, we'd like to dip our toes in and slowly explore broader options. Thus the hybrid 3/2 model. A less charitable explanation might be that Google has spent a lot of money on real estate. Or simply that leadership is out of touch and can't relate to the reasons why employees might want to be remote. I imagine it's a mix of both types of explanations.