Google Approves 85 Percent of 10,000 Requests to Relocate or Work Remotely

Google has approved a majority of requests it received from its employees to either relocate or work remotely. In an initial round of review, the search giant has allowed nearly 85 percent of employees who requested for relocation and remote working. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, most organisations have been trying to accommodate a hybrid work culture to ensure those who want could return to offices and let others work from elsewhere. Over the past few months, 10,000 employees asked Google to let them relocate to a new office or work remotely. The company sent out the approvals this week.

Google agreed to allow roughly 8,500 of the 10,000 who requested a change by July 2, Business Insider reported. Google denied such requests from employees whose work required access to specialised equipment.

As per Statista, by the end of 2020, Google-parent Alphabet had 135,301 full-time employees. These figures, until 2015, were reported as Google employees.If we consider these numbers, this means only 7.4 percent of Google workers asked to work from a new place and only 6.29 percent of the total applications were approved.

As per the report, 55 percent request came from workers asking to transfer between office locations and the remaining 45 percent were from employees wanting to work fully remotely. The company also told Business Insider,"For some of these, we need more information to make sure we can legally and administratively support each role in the preferred location. It's possible that some may be declined if we're unable to do so."

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise again in the US because of the Delta variant, Google recently delayed its return to work-from-office from September to October this year. It also said employees will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to its offices.