The hits keep coming for remote work, with two of the biggest tech firms in the world issuing new mandates and ultimatums this week that will force employees back in the office at least three days per week.
It turns out that the pandemic was not the paradigm shift we thought it was going to be when it comes to remote work. While companies embraced it with open arms a few years ago, the business world has been swift in demanding employees return to the office with increasing intensity.
Now, Google and IBM have both issued new mandates and ultimatums to their employees, further establishing that the “new normal” was very much a temporary measure.
Google Tells Employees to Return to Office or Get Laid Off
According to internal documents acquired by CNBC, there are many divisions within Google telling remote workers that their future at the company could be in jeopardy if they do not return to the office at least three days per week.
To be clear, Google isn’t going to be explicitly firing remote workers. However, these employees were told that they could be part of upcoming company layoffs, which have been quite common at Google over the last few years, letting go of hundreds of employees from their Android and Pixel divisions earlier this month.
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“As we’ve said before, in-person collaboration is an important part of how we 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.” – Courtenay Mencini, a Google spokesperson to CNBC
The new ultimatum is hitting departments at Google in different ways, but the basics are the same. If you live within 50 miles, you have to be in the office three days a week. If not, you may be able to keep your arrangement intact, but any promotions would require relocation.
IBM Issues Return to Office Mandate
In a staff memo acquired by The Register, IBM has also told its employees that they will soon be required to come into the office at least three days per week. More specifically, employees were told “to work at least three days a week from the client location where their assigned territory decision-makers work, a flagship office, or a sales hub.”
Unlike Google, IBM isn’t as open to being flexible with employees who live 50 miles from a compatible location, and is offering relocation fees for those outside of that range, instead of simply allowing them to continue working from home.
IBM has been slowly moving towards a less remote workforce over the last few months, instructing managers earlier this year that they need to return to the office or be fired.
Fortunately, IBM has quite a few locations that could work for employees, including flagship offices in New York, Austin, Raleigh, Washington DC, and the San Francisco Bay Area, and sales hubs in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
The Benefits of Remote Work
With more and more tech firms ditching their respective policies, it would be understandable to assume that remote work has been proven to reduce productivity and decrease revenue. However, the majority of work from home productivity statistics show the opposite.
For one, 47% of businesses notice increased productivity levels among employees who work remotely. On top of that, research shows that businesses offering remote work generally show higher revenue growth than those that don’t, making a clear case for providing the employee perk.
Suffice to say, the benefits of remote work are substantial, which most companies actually do still understand. Our Impact of Technology on the Workplace report found that 44% of US businesses were found to have not changed their remote work policy in the past year, so don’t feel like you have to follow the trends set by big tech firms like IBM and Google.
