Google employees regularly receive notifications from management about Covid-19 infections, leading some to question the company’s back-to-office mandate.
The employees, who spoke to CNBC anonymously, said that since. They were asked to return to the office, infection notifications have regularly appeared in their email inboxes. Employees reacted with frustration and memes.
The company urged most employees in April to return to the physical office at least three days a week. The staff has since stepped down from the mandate after effectively working from home for so long. While the company enjoys one of the fastest revenue growths in 15 years. Google has offered full-time employees the opportunity to apply for permanent remote work. But it’s unclear how many employees have been approved.
According to the city’s Public Health Dashboard, Google’s current Covid-19 outbreak in Los Angeles is the largest of all Los Angeles companies.
Deadline.com first reported that the tech giant’s Silicon Beach campus in Venice, California, had 145 infections. While 135 cases were reported on the company’s sprawling Playa Vista campus.
A Google spokesperson told CNBC, “There has been no significant increase in on-site transmission of COVID-19 to our campus. The figures reported in Playa Vista and Venice reflect the total number of cases over the past few months, not current or active topics. .
Employees filled Memegen, the company’s image-sharing site, with memes about the increasing number of exposure notifications they received. One meme, which received 2,840 upvotes, featured an image of an inbox with the subject line of an email from a San Francisco facility manager that read. We’re so excited to see you back at the office!” and the subject line of the follow-up email “Notification of confirmed cases of COVID-19”.