Google wants employees to return to office despite productivity gains in remote working

Employees want more 'collaboration and social connections,' the company says

Tech giant Google wants most of its employees to return to office by September, despite the company's engineers suggesting in an internal survey that they feel as productive when working remotely as in the office.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Brian Welle, a human resources vice president at Google, said that the survey showed that productivity levels of the company's engineers rebounded in May, after being hit in the spring of 2020 when employees began working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite this finding, over 75 per cent of the employees also said in the research that they want more "collaboration and social connections" at work, according to Welle. Most employees also said they wanted to be near their teammates physically when working on new projects.

"There's something about innovative work — when you need that spark," Welle told the news outlet.

"Our employees feel like those moments happen better when they're together," she added.

That's partially why Google wants to move ahead with its plan to bring most employees back to offices, but communications have been less than clear.

In May, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new "hybrid" work model, in which about 60 per cent of Google's staff would be required to work in the office a few days a week.

Another 20 per cent would be able to relocate to "new company locations" while the remaining 20 per cent may apply to permanently work from home, with both groups seeing salary adjustments.

The company said these positions would be allocated based on requests and announced in August.

As the technology company works out which employees will work where and how much they'll be paid, many Google employees have expressed annoyance over uneven enforcement of the remote work policy and the lack of clear direction from the company.

Many workers are currently waiting to hear from their bosses whether their remote work plans have been approved.

The frustrations escalated recently when Urs Hölzle, Google's senior vice president for technical infrastructure, emailed staff that he was moving to New Zealand to work remotely for a year.

Hölzle had reportedly opposed remote work policy for employees who fell below a certain seniority level.

To many employees, this unexpected news seemed unfair and flippant.

"Obviously there's an enormous double standard," Laura de Vesine, a senior engineer who works under Hölzle, told Bloomberg.

A Google spokesperson told Bloomberg that Hölzle's request for relocation was approved last year, but his relocation was delayed because of the pandemic.

The spokesperson added that Hölzle is supportive of remote working and that there will be workers "across all levels" of his division who will be approved to relocate or work remotely.