Google employees to start sharing desks amid layoffs, office consolidation
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Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) employees returning to the company's largest offices are likely to find their workspaces a little more crowded than they expected.
In the name of what the Google (GOOG) calls "real estate efficiency" the company will have its cloud employees and business partners start sharing desks and alternate days at their workspaces beginning in the second quarter of this year. The desk-sharing plan comes just a few weeks after Google (GOOG) laid off 11,000 employees and said it would slow down it historically high rate of hiring.
According to a report from CNBC, the new desk-sharing plan called "Cloud Office Evolution", of CLOE, will go into effect at the company's five-largest locations in the U.S.--New York, San Francisco, Kirkland, Washington and Sunnyvale, California. CNBC cited internal Google (GOOG) documents that also said the company would vacate some of its buildings as part of the employee-reshuffling plan.
Google (GOOG) announced its layoff plans in January as it reported fourth-quarter results that included a year-over-year decline in net income. The company also said it expects to incur $500M in costs related to its layoffs and office space consolidation plans.