Google formalizes in-office policies, and neglectful attendance could impact performance reviews

By Emily Bary

Consistently absent workers could find their compliance with return-to-office policies factored into performance-review conversations

Google is cracking down further on remote work -- and may include compliance with return-to-office policies in performance-review conversations for consistently absent workers.

The company already required that most employees come to the office three days a week, but Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi said in a note to staffers Wednesday that Google, part of Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL)(GOOGL), was going to be "clearer" about that requirement.

"If you're on a hybrid schedule, you should be coming into the office regularly -- 3 days per week for most Googlers," Cicconi said in the memo, which was reviewed by MarketWatch. "That's not new and most of you already do this. But to be clearer about it, we're adding this expectation to our existing Teamwork Attributes and the GBO How, which managers will continue to consider as part of GRAD reviews."

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Leaders will get reports with aggregate data on team attendance, a Google spokesperson told MarketWatch, though the reports won't show data on individual workers.

Employees demonstrating consistent absences from the office could see their compliance factor in performance-review conversations.

"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," a company spokesperson said. "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."

While some Google employees are approved to be remote, the company is hoping some will change their stance.

"For those who are remote and who live near a Google office, we hope you'll consider switching to a hybrid work schedule," Cicconi said in her note. "Our offices are where you'll be most connected to Google's community. Going forward, we'll consider new remote work requests by exception only."

She said that Google also recognized that hybrid workers would sometimes face "circumstances where you may not be able to come to the office, like this week's air quality control warning in Canada and the U.S. East Coast."

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The Alphabet Workers Union criticized the company's latest moves.

"We have maintained quality performance with flexible office attendance," Chris Schmidt, a software engineer and union member said in a statement provided to MarketWatch. "Overnight, workers' professionalism has been disregarded in favor of ambiguous attendance tracking practices tied to our performance evaluations."

See also: Salesforce donating $10 per day to get workers back to the office is a 'cute gimmick.' But will it actually work?

-Emily Bary

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06-08-23 1407ET

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