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Google has told some remote workers that their jobs could be at risk if they don’t start attending the office three days per week.
Several Google units, including remote employees in Google Technical Services and People Operations, were told they needed to return to the nearest office on a hybrid schedule, according to internal documents obtained by CNBC.
Remote workers in Google Technical Services were told that they should switch to a hybrid office schedule or take a voluntary exit package, per a recent notice, while human resources workers were told they must choose to attend the office on a hybrid schedule or their roles will be eliminated, according to an internal memo.
Remote employees in the Google Technical Services are being offered a one-time paid relocation expense to move within 50 miles of an office, per CNBC.
The move is part of a wider shift toward in-person work within Silicon Valley.
Most major tech companies have reversed course on the fully remote schedules offered to employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring workers to be in the office at least three days per week.
Google has been cracking down on workers who try to dodge return-to-office mandates.
At the beginning of the year, some remote workers were told to take voluntary buyouts if they didn’t return to the nearest office at least three days a week.
In February, Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder who has returned to help lead the company’s AI efforts, urged workers to be in the office “at least” every weekday.
In an internal memo, he told employees working on Google’s flagship AI model, Gemini, that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity.”
A Google spokesperson told Fortune: “As we’ve said before, in-person collaboration is an important part of how we innovate and solve complex problems.”
“To support this, some teams have asked remote employees that live near an office to return to in-person work three days a week,” they said.
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Return-to-office push
Big Tech companies have been increasingly pushing to do more with less for the last year.
Efficiency has become the name of the game in Silicon Valley, with companies looking to downsize on headcount while increasingly incorporating AI into workflows.
At the same time, there’s also been a push to get workers back into the office, with companies citing productivity gains and increased collaboration.
Some experts, however, have suggested that these RTO pushes may serve another purpose, which is to encourage employees to resign of their own accord.
Commercial real estate markets have also felt the impact of widespread remote work.
Office vacancy rates in major U.S. metros have climbed above 20%, driving landlords to cut rents and repurpose space for residential or mixed-use developments.
This downturn has also intensified pressure on companies to fill empty floors and justify costly leases.
While companies including Google and Meta operate a hybrid schedule, with most employees expected to attend the office three days per week, some tech companies have gone even further.
Both Amazon and X, formerly known as Twitter, require workers to be in the office five days per week.
Written by Beatrice Nolan for Fortune as “Google is demanding some remote workers move within 50 miles of an office and show up three days a week or risk losing their jobs” and republished with permission.
