Google continues to restrict remote work as more corporate America and technology companies push in-office mandates and reduce remote flexibility.
This time, the company is updating its COVID-era “work from anywhere” policy, which allows employees to work remotely from anywhere away from their main office for up to four weeks in a calendar year. Now Google will count even one WFA work day as a full week, according to Internal document He got it CNBC Wednesday.
“Whether you log 1 WFA day or 5 WFA days in a given standard workweek, 1 WFA week will be deducted from your weekly WFA balance,” reads the document, which was distributed over the summer shortly before the update went into effect, according to the CNBC.
The WFA policy is different from the regular Google policy Hybrid schedulewhich gives employees permission to work from home two days a week. The hybrid schedule, which was also put in place during the pandemic, will not be changed. WFA days give employees the flexibility to work remotely, but not “from home or nearby,” according to the leaked internal document.
The WFA policy update does not apply to all Google employees and may exclude employees who are required to be present in physical offices and data centers. Violations will result in disciplinary action or termination, according to CNBC.
Google did not immediately respond luckRequest for comment.
In April, Google warned remote employees in certain departments that their roles could be canceled if they didn’t adhere to hybrid schedules, which specifically required coming into the office three days a week. It also showed some teams Voluntary takeovers For remote workers who live within 50 miles of the office and don’t want to commute to work in person.
“As we’ve said before, in-person collaboration is an important part of how we innovate and solve complex problems,” a Google spokesperson said. luck In April.
According to the WFA policy update, workers are not allowed to work from a Google office in a separate state or country during their WFA period due to “legal and financial implications of working across borders,” according to CNBC.
Remote technical work
said CTO Jan Hendrik von Ahlen of JobLeads, a Germany-based job search platform luck Of the more than 12 million U.S. job postings in its database, just under 6% are fully remote, less than 7% are hybrid, and about 88% are on-site.
“This is similar to the pre-pandemic numbers,” Hendrik von Ahlen said.
Across the sector, companies are increasingly tracking attendance via badges and other tools and presenting RTO as essential to culture and productivity, even as many maintain hybrid rather than fully remote models.
Apple moved to a hybrid three-day in-office system, linking compliance to badge tracking and potential discipline, framing the shift around the benefits of collaboration despite employee opposition. Meta reimposed the three-day requirement in September 2023 with enforcement until performance results or termination for noncompliance, citing internal data that in-person work enhances engineering results while retaining exceptions for originally remote hires.
Amazon has stepped up from a three-day mandate to stricter enforcement against “coffee badges,” explored minimum daily office hours, and has indicated or outlined moves toward five days in 2025, sparking internal opposition and phased implementation challenges. Microsoft has shifted toward a formal three-day on-site baseline for employees near offices, reflecting a broader trend of codifying hybrid expectations following looser post-pandemic flexibility.
Google’s tightening policy is consistent with a larger trend among large employers that sees them slowly retreating from pandemic-era flexibility, said Kelsey Zammit, a partner at Kingsley Szament Employment Lawyers. luck.
“Such a policy change could have a measurable impact on morale and employee retention,” Zammit said, adding that changing expectations for more flexible office work policies could frustrate employees who were hired on the assumption of semi- or fully remote work.
“This can contribute to disengagement or increased employee turnover, especially among high performers who realize they can get flexible options elsewhere,” Zammit said.
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