While this was probably a necessary move due to ongoing covid19 impact on families as well as pressure from other companies (e.g. FB and Twitter having announced broader WFH policies), it's fascinating to see Google do this and how it'll impact their workforce in the longer term.

Google arguably pioneered the model of "office will have everything you need" to incentive current employees to come to the office as well as lure new recruits. It's been a win-win for the company and the employees: Google gets focus/dedication and the synergies of colocation, whereas employees can enjoy the many onsite perks.

One major irony is that for a company that sells products that facilitate and enable WFH, such as the GSuite, it's actually not very open to allowing its employees to WFH. Covid19 has seemingly forced the company to change, or at least adapt in the short term.

But what happens in 2-3 years? As tech employees everywhere are used to WFH, Google probably needs to de-emphasize the onsite requirement aspect and consequently change their culture/workplace model.