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When a Googler asked the company if he could organize his work schedule to work fewer hours on more days, the HR representative responded by saying that the average Googler works more than a typical 9-to-5 workday – It appears to refute previous reports that Google employees have light workloads.
“Most salaried Googlers actually work longer than 8 hours on the days they work,” a human resources representative for Google’s People Operations team wrote in response to the employee, in a letter seen by CNBC. “Nobody has 120% FTE [Full Time Employee] To work a regular FT job at Google, so working a 100% compressed schedule is not really realistic.”
The memo went on to say that the company allows employees to apply for 60% or 80% full-time schedules.
The HR representative’s assertion that employees typically work long hours made some employees eager to share that information with their friends and relatives, according to internal message boards.
During the summer, multiple postings It said I interviewed a Google software engineer who earns six figures, who said he works one hour a day, does programming in the morning and spends the rest of his shifts working on his startup. Reports of the one-hour workday went viral, including among friends and family of Google employees.
One meme, shared by a Google employee on Memegen, noted that the employee wanted to share an HR representative’s thoughts with “duper relatives” who referred to her one-hour workday reports. More than 100 employees “liked” it.
In a statement to CNBC, Google spokeswoman Courtenay Mencini said Google employees are able to request more flexible schedules and that requests are reviewed based on their roles and teams.
“As with any company, there are times when our employees work more than 40 hours a week to meet deadlines, cover for teammates, or deliver products and services to our users,” Mencini said.
The company confirmed that it is considering approval 60% and 80% full-time schedules, plus other part-time variants, based on employee circumstances and manager approval. However, compressed work weeks, which specify the number of hours and days for full-time work, are not as flexible or compatible with overall team schedules as other options offered by the company, according to Google.
Google employees have received public backlash over hiring tactics such as broad corporate perks, which technology companies have largely used to acquire talent over the past two decades. However, 2023 saw a change in the industry, when economic headwinds and labor shifts led some of those same companies to decide to seek some concessions.