Google Takes Hybrid Working Policy a Step Further by Tracking Employees’ Office Attendance

Key takeaways

• Google is to start tracking how often its employees are coming into the office
• The Alphabet Workers Union has responded, saying the move disregarded employees’ professionalism
• Google’s stock price has grown nearly 40% this year

Google has announced it’s taking its hybrid working policy a step further by checking employees’ attendance through their badges and making it a part of performance reviews. It’s not been a popular move for Google employees from a company already making mass layoffs, but the stock was mostly unharmed. Let’s get into the details.

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What is Google saying to its workers?

Google has become the latest to demand that its workforce come into the office more regularly after several high-profile announcements from peers Amazon and Meta. Most Google employees have been expected to be in the office three days a week since last year, but the search engine giant is taking things a step further.

The new policy is said to include tracking attendance through ID badges and that attendance would factor into US employees’ performance reviews, which honestly gives off big time school principal vibes. Fully remote workers have been asked to reconsider their work patterns.

In an email to employees, Google’s chief people officer Fiona Cicconi said the new products unveiled at Google’s May developer conference were “conceived, developed and built by teams working side by side”.

It’s already caused clashes with the workforce. The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents Google employees and contractors, released a statement about the mandate, saying “Overnight, workers’ professionalism has been disregarded in favor of ambiguous attendance tracking practices tied to our performance evaluations”.

Wall Street’s reaction

Google has already made thousands of job cuts this year in a bid to reduce costs, while the stock price has soared nearly 40% in 2023 thanks to the AI revolution Google has been one of the leaders in.

Google’s share price dipped 3.78% on Wednesday, bringing a four-day gaining streak to an end for the stock. Thanks to a surprise interest rate hike in Canada, it’s been a mixed week for the stock market, adding speculation to what the Fed plans to do next week.

But Google investors should be wary of its workers’ unions, lest they stage walkouts or further demonstrations against the new policy — as this could impact the stock price in the coming months.

The bottom line

Google isn’t an outlier in asking its workers to come into the office more, but linking attendance to performance reviews isn’t going to be a popular move. Google’s share price is mainly unharmed by the backlash from its employees over its return to the office mandate, but investors should take notice of any plans to demonstrate against the policy.

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