Google tells employees to share desks as it looks to cut costs

[midian182]

WTF?! With a market cap of $1.18 trillion, Google is one of the biggest companies in the world, so one wouldn't expect some of its employees to share desks with co-workers. But that will become a reality starting from the next quarter as Google embraces "real estate efficiency."

CNBC reports that an internal FAQ document seen by the publication reveals the desk-sharing plan will affect Google Cloud employees, which make up more than a quarter of Google staff. It asks workers to alternate days they're in the office, either Monday and Wednesday, or Tuesday and Thursday, so they can share their desk with someone else. Staff can come in on unassigned days, but they will use an "overflow drop-in space" in these instances.

"Through the matching process, they [employees] will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment," the document explains.

The desk-sharing program will be introduced at Google Cloud's five largest US locations: Kirkland, Washington; New York City; San Francisco; Seattle; and Sunnyvale, California.

Many people like to personalize their desks, and levels of workspace cleanliness can vary wildly from person to person. To help prevent potential arguments/fights over what state desks are left in, Google is setting up "neighborhoods" made up of 200 to 300 people that will have a vice president or a director to ensure partner allocation goes smoothly and desks are kept clean and free from personal items.

Additionally, to stop people from camping out in conference rooms instead of sitting at their desks, a booking cap is being introduced on the number of rooms that can be taken for meetings.

Google refers to the desk-sharing plan as a more efficient use of its workspace, I.e., a cost-cutting measure that will reduce the amount of real estate space it pays for. The official name is "Cloud Office Evolution."

"Since returning to the office, we've run pilots and conducted surveys with Cloud employees to explore different hybrid work models and help shape the best experience. Our data show Cloud Googlers value guaranteed in-person collaboration when they are in the office, as well as the option to work from home a few days each week," a Google spokesperson told CNBC. "With this feedback, we've developed our new rotational model, combining the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility and focus we've all come to appreciate from remote work, while also allowing us to use our spaces more efficiently."

Google parent Alphabet became the latest tech giant to announce mass layoffs when it confirmed last month that 12,000 employees would lose their jobs. The desk-sharing initiative suggests Google isn't finished with its money-saving measures just yet.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97705-google-tells-employees-share-desks-looks-cut-costs.html

 

[JKnight]

After cutting 12000 jobs you would think they could afford more desk, but a I guess they are trying to save money for a stock buyback.

 

[brucek]

It sounds funny in the transition but of course it makes sense if that we're really headed to a world where most people are in the office half of the time or less, it doesn't make sense to build & keep all that space empty.

It'll be a few quarters of feeling strange to have rules about how you arrange your desk and then within a generation it'll just be normal and automatic and no one would consider going back.

I don't think it'd feel all that great to perpetually be in a ghost town where your building is always half empty anyway.

 

[fps4ever]

Forcing WAH employees back into the office then making them share a desk. Nice priorities since the savings will amount to squat overall. How about combining physical office locations and keep the WAH employees happy.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Dramatic headlines aside, sharing desks only makes sense with a largely remote workforce. Why pay rent for a bunch of empty offices?

 

[Nobina]

Fire dogshit CEO and suddenly you can afford desks.

 

[RudyBob]

Sharing is caring and we all know Goggle cares. Just ask them

 

[sorten]

That's a great idea. My employer is currently locked in a 3-year lease on two buildings, but as soon as that lease expires, we're going to a floating desk approach where we have half of the staff in on alternating days. It will be organized so teams are in the office on the same day together. We only work from the office two days per week now.

Why waste space (rent) and electricity if you don't need it? I get that some people like to have "their" desk set up with personal stuff like pictures, a favorite pen/chair/whatever, but for me a desk is a desk. I'm just there to do my job and collaborate with my team for 8 or 9 hours.

 

[wiyosaya]

Forcing WAH employees back into the office then making them share a desk. Nice priorities since the savings will amount to squat overall. How about combining physical office locations and keep the WAH employees happy.

Because Google doesn't have enough money yet or is not valued at a high enough market cap? /s Or, perhaps, Google doesn't control the world, yet? /s /s

 

[Carlos GarPov]

This is hysterical!

 

[VitalyT]

WTF?! With a market cap of $1.18 trillion...

Because it doesn't make sense to provision desks for all people who mostly work from home.

 

[anoff]

Desk hotelling had been around for literally decades, this isn't news and is incredibly common. The fact that you don't know this is a bit concerning though

 

[opinali]

That's a great idea. My employer is currently locked in a 3-year lease on two buildings, but as soon as that lease expires, we're going to a floating desk approach where we have half of the staff in on alternating days. It will be organized so teams are in the office on the same day together. We only work from the office two days per week now.

Why waste space (rent) and electricity if you don't need it? I get that some people like to have "their" desk set up with personal stuff like pictures, a favorite pen/chair/whatever, but for me a desk is a desk. I'm just there to do my job and collaborate with my team for 8 or 9 hours.

Yeah, it's just a sensible move. People should realize that Google owns over $50B in real estate (this includes data centers). And the biggest offices are in expensive places like MTV, NYC, SFO, London, Zurich, etc. Now with hybrid work it becomes hard to justify the continued expansion of those assets, and their maintenance, when 50% of all seats are empty at any time. The layoff was hopefully a one-time deal and it wouldn't buy much breathing room before everyone is packed into narrow desks again. The 50% empty desks don't help a lot if the folks immediately next to you happen to commute to office in the same day. Also meeting rooms are occupied in proportion to total employees, not to the ones in office, because almost every meeting with 3+ people statistically will have at least one participant in office, so you need the room reservation even if some folks join remotely. You can optimize a bit by splitting large meeting rooms in more rooms of smaller size, but that's a limited option, for one thing many teams make arrangements so everyone commutes to office in certain days that are meeting-heavy so you still need rooms that scale to full team sizes.

 

[m3tavision]

That's a great idea. My employer is currently locked in a 3-year lease on two buildings, but as soon as that lease expires, we're going to a floating desk approach where we have half of the staff in on alternating days. It will be organized so teams are in the office on the same day together. We only work from the office two days per week now.

Why waste space (rent) and electricity if you don't need it? I get that some people like to have "their" desk set up with personal stuff like pictures, a favorite pen/chair/whatever, but for me a desk is a desk. I'm just there to do my job and collaborate with my team for 8 or 9 hours.

Why do you need a desk then...? Wouldn't renting a board room twice a week be all you need for "An office" ..?

 

[Gastec]

At least they didn't tell their employees to share their houses, their beds, their cars, their private common lands and all their personal common objects and to also shower in groups. Like a well-run Commune would do!

 

[Gastec]

Because Google doesn't have enough money yet or is not valued at a high enough market cap? /s Or, perhaps, Google doesn't control the world, yet? /s /s

What's with all the "/s" ?

 

[Julnor]

I'm glad I'm middle aged, I don't have to worry about this too much longer.

Young people, this is your problem. You better figure out how to reign in your corporate overlords or there won't be a next generation.

 

[sorten]

Why do you need a desk then...? Wouldn't renting a board room twice a week be all you need for "An office" ..?

I'm sure that would work for some people, though I'm not sure it's as space efficient as desks in an open room. Personally, I prefer my own space and two monitors.

 

[Avro Arrow]

You can always tell just how incompetent a corporation's leadership is by how utterly moronic their ideas are. This is a PERFECT case-in-point!

 

[maxxcool7421]

After cutting 12000 jobs you would think they could afford more desk, but a I guess they are trying to save money for a stock buyback.

/Lana Kane voice/ YYUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPP

 

[maxxcool7421]

What's with all the "/s" ?

/s what /s

 

[waclark]

Desk hotelling had been around for literally decades, this isn't news and is incredibly common. The fact that you don't know this is a bit concerning though

Exactly, I was just about to post this very comment. We did hoteling back in the mid-late 90s. With so many people out of the office on a regular basis (sales office) it didn't make sense to have 3 floors of a building with only 10% occupancy on any given day.

 

[waclark]

You can always tell just how incompetent a corporation's leadership is by how utterly moronic their ideas are. This is a PERFECT case-in-point!

Why is this moronic? This concept has been used for quite a while now. When people aren't in the office 100% of the time there's no need to have all that floor space going unused. Real estate is expensive, especially in places where Google et al have offices.

 

[waclark]

Forcing WAH employees back into the office then making them share a desk. Nice priorities since the savings will amount to squat overall. How about combining physical office locations and keep the WAH employees happy.

You clearly haven't rented any commercial space recently. It's very expensive, especially in the cities where Google has office space. The savings can be huge just in reduced floor space. It's very likely that they will "combine" office spaces, if nothing else by reducing the square footage in a particular building.

 

[fps4ever]

You clearly haven't rented any commercial space recently. It's very expensive, especially in the cities where Google has office space. The savings can be huge just in reduced floor space. It's very likely that they will "combine" office spaces, if nothing else by reducing the square footage in a particular building.

I understand the costs, which is why I said combining locations is a better solution. With over a trillion dollars market cap it will be a drop compared to other ways to save money. I'm not against it but with it being an Internet company having so many satellite locations just for " regional presence" might have not been the wisest move to begin with. I'm sure its more complicated than that as we are looking at it from a high altitude so to speak. Not taking into account data centers, CS centers , etc. but that is not what this move seems like.