Google denies teleworking and buys an office building in London for 1,000 million

Google does not believe in remote work. At least that makes his last operation clear, a real estate macro-operation for more than $1 billion to buy offices in London. In the statement released by the technology giant, it explained that it believes that office work will continue to be essential for its operation. “This investment represents Google’s continued trust in the office as a place for in-person connection and collaboration.” The Alphabet group frames this movement in a renewal of its network of offices in the British country. “

The building they now own is the ‘Central Saint Giles’, situated next to the British Museum. The 6,400 workers of the firm in the city they already operated in this building since 2011 and now they buy the property with the idea of ​​expanding and remodeling it.

“We have had the privilege of operating in the UK for almost 20 years, and our purchase of the development of Central Saint Giles reflects our continued commitment to the growth and success of the country,” said Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

This operation is part of an open debate within the company due to its work model. last august Google approved 85% of requests of telecommuting of its employees. Although many want to embrace this model, the firm intends to work with a mixed model in which at least 60% work from the office and the maximum number of permanent teleworkers is 20%.

With this purchase, Alphabet underlines its strategy of broadly maintaining face-to-face work and its commitment is to make changes to make returning to the office easier and more attractive. They have already announced changes to improve physical work such as reforms that allow outdoor work, “hybrid work rooms” and offer more space. Proof of the latter is that the new building will have the capacity to house more than 10,000 workers.

From the Government of the United Kingdom they have been delighted that Google decides to carry out such an important operation and establish a permanent property in their country. “Is investment in google jobs It is a huge vote of confidence in the UK as the world’s leading technology hub,” Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.

Google’s effort to force a return to the office comes from afar. In addition to announcing that this operation will not be the only one, since they have prepared 6,000 million for offices, have also launched measures to encourage return. One of the last measures it undertook in the middle of last year was to implement a “salary calculator” so that the 10,000 workers who asked to work remotely would see their remuneration affected if they decided to quit work in office.