Googlers work-from-office attendance to affect employee performance reviews

While working from home became popular during the pandemic, the era of full-time remote work seems to be ending, with one example being Google. Googlers are being asked to return to the office, or else they might have to face the music in their next appraisal. Google has reportedly implemented stricter policies to encourage employees to work from the office more frequently. According to an internal email, the company stated that office attendance could affect an employee’s performance review if they failed to meet the minimum requirement of three days of in-office work. 

Google is not planning to increase the number of employees working from home full-time, except in exceptional cases.

Remote work to be an exception 

The company spokesperson highlighted that Google’s current hybrid work model, with three days in the office and two days remote, has been successful. He emphasised the importance of in-person connections and collaboration, leading Google to limit remote work to exceptional circumstances.

“Our employees have been in our hybrid work model for over a year now—spending three days a week in the office and the other two working from home,” Google spokesperson Ryan Lamont told Fortune in an email, as per media reports. “It’s going well, and we want to see Googlers connecting and collaborating in person, so we’re limiting remote work to exception only.”

Google’s three-day office policy 

Google initially introduced the three-day office policy over a year ago, after two years of remote work due to pandemic restrictions. The transition initially faced logistical challenges as a large number of employees returned to the office.

“Our hybrid approach is designed to incorporate the best of being together in person with the benefits of working from home for part of the week. Now that we’re more than a year into this way of working, we’re formally integrating this approach into all of our workplace policies,” Lamont said. 

The spokesperson explained that Google’s hybrid approach aims to combine the benefits of in-person interaction with the advantages of remote work. As they have been operating in this manner for over a year, the company is formally integrating this approach into their workplace policies.

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Google did not provide further details on how attendance would be tied to employee performance when requested.

Incentivising office attendance

Tech companies have encountered difficulties in ensuring compliance with their return-to-office mandates. Consequently, companies like Google are tightening remote work policies to encourage employees to return.

Some companies are employing creative methods to incentivise office attendance. For instance, Salesforce has offered to donate $10 to a local charity for each day an employee works in person between specific dates.

This year, there has been a push to have employees return to the office at least part of the time, with companies like Disney, Meta, and Starbucks announcing plans for in-person work on several days each week.