Google CEO Sundar Pichai has defended Cloud Unit’s new desk-sharing policy for employees, explaining that some of the company’s offices are virtually empty and reminding employees that real estate is expensive. I was.
“Obviously they’re trying to be efficient and save money, but they’re also leveraging resources,” Pichai said at an all-hands meeting last week, according to audio obtained by CNBC. “By the way, people always complain that when they walk in, the desks are lined up and it’s like a ghost town. It’s not a good experience.”
Pichai’s comments follow last month’s CNBC report on Google’s plans to ask cloud employees and partners to share desks in the sector’s five largest locations, including New York and San Francisco. The company calls its downsizing effort the Cloud Office Evolution (CLOE).
At Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings call in early February, management said it would reduce its global office space as the company considers slowing revenue growth and continued recession concerns. He said he expects to spend about $500 million in the current period.
Pichai said many people “only come to the office two days a week,” making inefficient use of the current space.
“We should be good stewards of our finances,” Pichai said. You have to be careful.”
At the same all-hands meeting, Anas Osman, Google Cloud’s vice president of strategy and operations, said about a third of employees were in the office at least four days a week, referring to the return to work the group implemented. citing experimental data. to a physical location.
As part of the pilot, employees were given the option of dedicated or shared desks, Osman said.
“These one-to-one desks were actually used about 35% of the time over four days. increase.”
In some ways, he said, sharing has also led to increased productivity.
““Our pilot data shows that even with a rotating model and shared desks, Googlers report significantly improved collaboration when assigned days to work in the office,” Osman said.
Pichai added that the new policy is only for cloud employees at this time, and that the company “gives teams the freedom to experiment.” The cloud department makes up about a quarter of the company’s overall workforce.
During the meeting, Pichai addressed employee concerns about the deployment of the shared desk policy and how it was communicated to employees. reported that it started appearing in the system. One popular meme says, “Every cost-cutting measure doesn’t have to be worded to sound good to your employees.”
“Double-speaking is disrespectful and irritating,” Pichai said in response to questions and comments posed by employees, and that “bad things happen, so you don’t have to make every bad thing sound like a miracle.” I read the contents.
Pichai replied, ‘I agree with you here. Your feedback is valid.’
“We should always try to be as candid as possible,” Pichai said. You are speaking to the world and there are so many stakeholders that sometimes nuance is important and words can have a material impact, and part of your communication reflects that. I think I may see you there.”
A Google spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
clock: Google AI response to ChatGPT