85% Googlers’ requests for relocation, remote working accepted

Of the about 10,000 Googlers who applied for permission to work remotely or relocate, 85 per cent received approval. About 55 per cent of the requests received by the Company were for transfers/relocation, while the rest were for remote working.

The applications or requests that were not approved were mainly from those employees whose nature of work requires them to use specific equipment or involves personal interaction with customers as reported by Bloomberg.

Earlier, Google’s hybrid work proposal had resulted in a lot of disgruntlement amongst its employees most of whom were not in favour of the same. In fact, a good 75 per cent preferred to work from home rather than return to office. With a senior Google executive being granted his request to relocate to New Zealand and work remotely for a year, employees felt the policy was not fair or evenly applied, especially because the said executive himself had been against remote working in the past.

The tech giant recently extended its return to office plan by a month, in the face of the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19. It has now mandated that Googlers get themselves inoculated before returning to office. All staff members will have to produce a proof of vaccination to enter the workplace. While this policy is being rolled out in the US presently, it will soon be applicable to Google offices the world over, depending on the local situation and availability of vaccines across regions.