Google cuts will force workers to share desks, alternate days in office

Scores of Google workers will reportedly be forced to share desks as the embattled tech giant cuts down on office space as part of a budget-tightening push.

The employees in Google’s unprofitable Cloud division will also be asked to come to the office on different days so they won’t overlap with their deskmates, according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.

The mandate — which takes effect next quarter at offices in New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Calif., and Kirkland, Wash. — will allow the company to “continue to invest in Cloud’s growth,” the memo said.

“Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler,” the memo said.

“Through the matching process, they 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 memo added.

The document said Google will vacate some office space as part of the initiative. Employees who decide to come into the office on an unscheduled day will be placed in an “overflow drop-in space.”

Impacted workers will be required to work on site two days week, rather than the three-day requirement implemented as part of Google’s return-to-office plan.

Google will reportedly refer to teams within its Google Cloud division as “neighborhoods,” which will set standards for the desk-sharing plan, such as how workers can decorate their work stations.

During an earnings call this month, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said the company “expected to incur approximately $500 million of costs related to exiting leases to align our office space with our adjusted global headcount.”

Porat did not specify which offices could close as a result of the effort, which she described as a bid to “optimize” Google’s “real estate footprint.”

A Google spokesperson told The Post that the company developed the plan based on results of internal pilots and employee surveys regarding hybrid work.

“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,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“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,” the statement added.

The arrangement is already generating some complaints among Google employees. The grumbling included a number of critical posts on Memegen, one of Google’s internal forums.

“Not every cost-cutting measure needs to be word mangled into sounding good for employees,” one post said, according to CNBC. “A simple ‘We are cutting office space to reduce costs’ would make leadership sound more believable.”

The desk-sharing plan emerged just weeks after Google parent Alphabet rankled employees by laying off about 12,000 employees, or roughly 6% of its overall workforce. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the cuts were necessary to ensure the company could focus on its priorities in artificial intelligence and other burgeoning fields.

Google laid off more than two dozen in-house massage therapists in its home state of California as part of the belt-tightening effort.