Google’s remote workers are being told to come back to the office. Here’s what experts think

Michael Halinski of Toronto Metropolitan University speaks about the impact of Google's hybrid work policy.

With Google asking some remote staff to start showing up in person again, or risk losing their jobs, one expert thinks it’s a “strong signal” that other tech organizations may follow suit.

The tech giant is now requiring remote workers who it says live within the “standard commuting distance” of 80 kilometres from an office to switch to a hybrid schedule or risk losing their jobs.

Michael Halinski, associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, whose expertise is organizational change, work engagement and work-life balance, said Google’s decision to require some remote staff to switch to a hybrid schedule is significant because the search engine giant is a “leader in the field.”

“So if Google was unsuccessful at working exclusively in a virtual environment, I think it’s a pretty strong signal for other massive tech organizations that they are going to be all pushing employees back into the office soon,” Halinski said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Friday.

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When asked about the reasons behind the move, Google said “in-person collaboration” is an important part of how they “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,” a Google spokesperson said in an email to CTVNews.ca on Friday.

Google said the move only affects staff in the United States and is not a company-wide policy change. “These are team specific decisions based on their individual business needs,” the spokesperson wrote.

Google is not alone in the shift back to the office. The pandemic made remote or hybrid work more common around the world, but the end of the global crisis has led to many companies grappling with balancing in-office and work-from-home requirements, The Canadian Press reported. Experts have mixed opinions on the impact and significance of the trend in a post-pandemic world.

Why Google’s move is significant

Companies should consider both their needs and the views of employees, management and human resources before making the massive decision to bring staff back to the office, said Halinski. Halinski said he would encourage organizations to go with a hybrid schedule.

He said companies such as Google could be making this move to manage both short-term and long-term performance.

“From a short-term perspective, they must believe that bringing employees back into the office will increase their productivity,” Halinski said. “It’s easier to manage and motivate their employees. ... but they have to watch out from a long-term perspective as well because they have to worry about recruitment and retention.”

Employees working remotely have more flexibility managing demands from home, he said, making hybrid or in-office jobs less attractive for some workers. Consequently, he said firms who make the hybrid or office shift could lose staff, or see morale decrease.

Meanwhile, startups or smaller firms could benefit from recruiting the employees who decide to quit their jobs to find fully remote work, he added.

While the pandemic showed that remote work was possible for many companies, the level of productivity and quality of work away from the office is debatable, said Opeyemi Akanbi, associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University whose expertise includes remote work.

The moves also mean some workers’ desires to have some autonomy in where and how they work will conflict with companies’ goal to exert a measure of control over employees, she added.

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Ultimately, she doesn’t see the return-to-office shift as indicating remote work as a “failed project,” noting some companies and workers may benefit from it. Some organizations are already looking to reduce their workforce and may not mind if they lose some workers over the changes, she added.

“I think we’re just going to see two tracks develop where some companies are going to prioritize control and use the return to office as a kind of tool for filtering out the employees they’d like to let go anyway, and some other companies are going to double down on remote work as a kind of policy for attracting talent to their organizations,” Akanbi said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Friday.

Workers could benefit from the changes as well because many actually like working in the office, she said.

“They’re going to be excited about this policy,” Akanbi said. “They want to work in an office that is vibrant, that has people walking in the hallways. They want to be able to stop their colleagues in the hallway and talk to them about projects they’re working on.

But Halinski said working parents, especially women who mainly take care of children, may lose out the most with having to go back to the office even for part of the week.

“Allowing employees to work remotely gave more working moms more opportunities to maintain their employment and to move up the career ladder rather than taking time off and taking care of their children from home,” he said.