Google employees angered by 'hypocritical' remote work policies

[TexasTowelie]

As Google employees around the world make plans for post-pandemic work at the tech giant, Laura de Vesine won't be among them. For months, de Vesine, a senior site reliability engineer, went back and forth with the company over a potential relocation. Fed up with Google's inflexible policies, she handed in her notice. Her last day is Friday.

For de Vesine, Google's attempt to corral its employees after a year of remote work has been marked by indecision and backpedaling. Last fall, her team was told it would need to relocate to North Carolina from the company's office in Sunnyvale, California, about 40 miles south of San Francisco. The prospect of ditching Bay Area housing prices and long commutes was a powerful draw. The move, however, came with a 15% salary cut, she said. Then in late March, the team was told it would be a 25% cut. About a month later, the team relocation plans were scrapped altogether.

"This feeling that I can't realistically leave the Bay Area and work for Google is enough for me to have decided to leave," de Vesine said. "It's the fact that Google doesn't prioritize the needs of human beings. The fact that we have lives outside of work, that people actually have families."

Though remote work is sweeping corporate America, Google has been reluctant to let employees do it permanently, an approach Twitter and Reddit have taken. Google isn't the only tech company wrestling with its workforce's increasing desire for flexibility. Apple is facing its own backlash from employees, while Facebook just extended remote work options to all of its employees. But the way the search giant has handled the rollout of its plans has drawn particular scrutiny.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/cnet/article/Google-angers-employees-with-hypocritical-16307416.php

[Sherman A1]

1. One hopes that employers are in for a highly educational time ahead

And that the day of 5he disposable work force is drawing to a close.

[Norbert]

2. There is the other side of the coin

I'm sure her situation is much different.

Where I work there are employees and managers abusing the privilege of working remotely. One manager has been onsite three days this year and less than two weeks in a year. Her department reflects the absence as electronic files are being misplaced or lost while other files are not being maintained with adherence to our SOPs (Standard Operating procedures). When you have FDA audits every two years this can be a problem.

One of her employees has been onsite even less than her. This employee has constantly asked me and other employees to track down documentation. I am always flexible with helping people out and try to accommodate them but continuing to do other people's work gets old especially when it is very time consuming and you have your own responsibilities to tend to. Several times this employee has had as many as three people chasing after the same thing. I have stopped doing this practice. It is not sitting too well for some but I am sorry for feeling like they are taking advantage of this. You cannot run a department exclusively through Microsoft Teams, especially when most other departments at our part of the multinational company are not doing the same.

Sorry for the rant and I do hope the Google employees can get this situation resolved but in my case having shits to give is in short supply.

[uponit7771]

3. Then that managers performance needs to be addressed not the concept. WFH makes managers

... set goals and trust employees, if they can't do that then leadership in that corp isn't doing the basics.

If the leadership in that corporation needs any of the 3 other senses to manage then most likely they're having too many HR moments to be productive.

[abqtommy]

4. Thanks for your input.