COMP NEWS – Google is pushing forward a return to office policy on its workers following over three years of remote work policies.

Google plans to crack down on employees who haven’t been coming into its offices consistently, CNBC has found.

The company updated its hybrid work policy Wednesday and it includes tracking office badge attendance, confronting workers who aren’t coming in when they’re supposed to and including the attendance in employees’ performance reviews, according to internal memos viewed by CNBC. Most employees are expected in physical offices at least three days a week.

Google’s chief people officer, Fiona Cicconi, wrote an email to employees at the end of the day on Wednesday, which included doubling down on office attendance, reasoning that “there’s just no substitute for coming together in person.”

Originally, Google had rescinded its return-to-office plans back in 2021 and signaled that it would allow employees to telecommute with a hybrid schedule.

In 2021, after facing backlash for returning to offices, the company relaxed remote work plans and said it expected to let 20% of employees telecommute. However, most employees have been expected in physical offices at least three days a week as of April 2022 and at the time, the company tried to woo workers by throwing a private Lizzo concert, hiring marching bands and bringing in city mayors to celebrate the returns.

In April, CNBC reported Google dropped its Covid vaccine requirement to enter buildings.

The crackdown comes as the company is in the middle of an artificial intelligence arms race by which it has at times called all hands on deck to rapidly position itself against rivals like Microsoft and OpenAI, whose success has grown in recent months. Google has also made more attempts in recent weeks to crack down on leaks coming from within the company.

To read more about Google’s return to work policy, click here.

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