Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, explains the company’s remote working approach.
James Martin / CNET
Although Facebook and Twitter have announced big updates Google does not make any significant changes to its workplace priorities regarding policies that enable employees to work remotely. Instead, the search giant is taking a more measured approach, CEO Sundar Pichai told Wired in an interview Released Friday.
“How productive will we be when different teams that don’t normally work together have to come together for brainstorming, the creative process?” Pichai said. “We will do research, surveys, learn from data, learn what works. “
Pichai’s comments come a day after Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said the social networking giant will allow some employees to work permanently from home. He said that about half of the Facebook workforce could be away in the next five to ten years. Twitter made a similar announcement last week. CEO Jack Dorsey extended the policy earlier this week to his other company, the mobile payment company Square.
The discussion about teleworking policy highlights how the world’s largest technology companies are reassessing their approach to business afterwards the novel corona virus enforced unprecedented office closings around the world. Pichai had previously announced that most employees will be working remotely for the rest of 2020. Earlier this week, he said employees are expected to work on a rotating schedule and offices will be 20% or 30% full by the end of the year.
Google is in the middle of major office expansions, including key additions to its already large headquarters in Mountain View, California. The company also invests in a large campus in San Jose, California and in a renovated building in New York City. Pichai said remote working will not affect these projects.
“In all scenarios, I expect that we need physical space to bring people together. We have a lot of growth ahead of us,” he said. “Even if there is a course correction, I don’t think our existing footprint will be the problem.”
Nonetheless, the blocking of corona viruses has put a strain on the company in general. Google’s normally muscular advertising business collapsed in the first quarter, although Google’s well-oiled ad machine could exceed sales expectations. However, the search giant reported that revenue fell sharply in March as the coronavirus crisis hit, and the company warned of a “difficult” second quarter for its advertising business. Google has also slowed the hiring for the rest of the year, and is reported to have cut its marketing budget in half for the second half of 2020.
“We’re moderating our hiring plans, but we’re still bringing in staff. That doesn’t mean we’re not looking for efficiency,” Pichai told Wired when asked about possible cuts and layoffs. “We are looking for areas where we can make course corrections, work more efficiently and rationalize.”
