'Work from Anywhere' not valid for 'work from home': Google memo to employees

Google is reportedly imposing more stringent guidelines for its employees, adding more restrictions to its remote working policy. A new report has suggested that the tech giant is updating its “Work from Anywhere” policy, which was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since its implementation, the policy has allowed the employees to work from any location outside their main office for up to four weeks per calendar year. According to an internal memo obtained by CNBC, Google’s updated policy will now count an entire week as remote work if an employee works from outside the office, even if the person worked for a single day.

As per the report, the company is still maintaining the existing hybrid schedule, which was also introduced during the pandemic. The provision allows employees to work from home (WFH) two days a week.

WFA and WFH are separate provisions

It is pertinent to note that WFA (Work From Anywhere) days are separate from this WFH policy and allow employees to work remotely from any other location, not just their homes. As per the memo circulated over the summer, Google highlighted how 1 WFA day will be deducted as 1 WFA week.

“Whether you log 1 WFA day or 5 WFA days in a given standard work week, 1 WFA week will be deducted from your WFA weekly balance. WFA weeks cannot be used to work from home or nearby,” the memo obtained by CNBC read. The move came just months after Google offered voluntary buyouts to some full-time employees in the US and informed remote workers in specific teams that their positions could be affected by layoffs if they did not return to a hybrid work arrangement.

Under the updated policy, employees are not allowed to use their WFA days to work from a Google office in another state or country, citing “legal and financial implications of cross-border work.” Apart from this, those working from different locations may also need to follow business hours that align with their local time zones, according to the guidelines.

However, it is pertinent to note that the update does not apply to all employees and may exclude roles such as data centre staff or others who must be physically present. The memo maintained that violating any of the policies could lead ot disciplinary action or termination.

In an audio recording obtained by CNBC, John Casey, Google’s vice president of performance and rewards, said at the meeting that WFA “was meant to meet Googlers where they were during the pandemic. The policy was always intended to be taken in increments of a week and not be used as a substitute for working from home in a regular hybrid work week.”

The memo, however, raised an all-hands meeting. Not only this, one of the highest rated questions submitted through Google’s internal platform referred to the new update as “confusing”. The question was: “Why does even one day of WFA count as a whole week, and can we reconsider the restriction on using WFA weeks to work from home?”