Google staff asked to share desk space in latest cost purge • The Register
Google Cloud employees in the US are being asked to share a desk with a colleague in the latest cost-cutting as real estate is streamlined and mass layoffs are implemented in line with efforts outlined by management.
According to a memo sent out this week, colleagues in Kirkland, Washington; New York City; San Francisco, Seattle; and Sunnyvale California have been notified of the change.
“Most Googlers now have to share a desk with another Googler,” read the memo, seen by CNBC. Employees are not expected to sit at the same desk on the same day, Google added. “During the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with the desk partner and team to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment.”
Dubbed Cloud Office Evolution by management, the desk-share plan “combines the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility” of blended working at home and in the office.
This is all a far cry from the image that Google has worked hard to create a company that showers its employees with perks like on-site massage therapy, free meals and cooking classes, on-site gyms, and much, much more.
The tone changed last month when Google confirmed it was shedding about 12,000 employees it hired in the early years of the pandemic, who could no longer justify themselves on the payroll amid the dramatic drop in earnings.
For the 2022 calendar, Google parent Alphabet reported revenue of $282.8 billion, up 10 percent and significantly slower than double-digit growth in previous years. Net income plummeted to $59.9 billion from $76 billion.
In a conference call on the results, CFO Ruth Porat confirmed that the company expects to incur costs of approximately $500 million related to “exiting leases to align our office space with our adjusted global headcount forecast.” This will be reflected in company costs. We continue to optimize our real estate footprint.”
Globally, revenue generated by Google Cloud lags Microsoft and AWS by some distance, although it is well ahead of the fourth-largest public cloud provider. In the fourth quarter, Google Cloud revenue increased to $7.3 billion from $5.54 billion.
In a statement, Google said The registry: “Since returning to the office, we have piloted and conducted surveys with cloud workers to explore different hybrid working models and help create the best experience.
“Our data shows that cloud Googlers appreciate the guaranteed face-to-face collaboration in the office, as well as the ability to work from home a few days a week. With that feedback, we’ve developed our new rotation model that combines the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility and focus we all appreciate from remote work, while allowing us to use our spaces more efficiently.”
When we asked Google if the model would come to the rest of its locations, they told us it was limited to the five locations in the US. ®