Elain Brown Tech 08.26.2022 21:Aug PM EDT

Google Employees Complain About COVID-19 Outbreaks After Return-To-Office Mandate

Google employees have raised concerns about the frequent notifications of COVID-19 infections in the midst of their return to work.

Some Google employees are beginning to question the legitimacy of the company's return-to-office mandates as they continue to receive regular notifications from the management regarding Covid-19 infections.

The employees have coped with this alarming threat by posting memes online that provide a glimpse of their sentiments on returning to the office.

Google Employees' COVID-19 Notifications

Google employees shared their sentiments that ever since they were asked to return to their offices, infection notifications have been regularly appearing in their email inboxes.

According to CNBC, after the company held a return-to-office celebration, where Lizzo performed for thousands of employees at the Shoreline Amphitheater, some employees said they received an increase in the number of notifications from the headquarters in Mountain View, California, as well as from the offices in San Francisco.

In April, Google announced to its employees that they were required to report to their physical offices at least three days per week.

Numerous employees pushed back on this mandate due to the present threat of the pandemic. However, with no success, all employees were obliged to return to work in the company's offices.

Google Employees' Havoc on Memes

Google employees have casually shared this frustration through memes on their Memegen site. Memegen is an internal image-sharing site of the company, shared only by the employees.

The site has recently been filled with memes about the increasing number of notifications they are receiving about the COVID-19 infection in the offices.

The employees have continued to cope by airing their frustrations and memes as a reaction to their current state.

As an example, there was a meme with two different perspectives. The first photo was a rainbow arch saying "How it started," and the second photo is a text saying "Notification of confirmed Covid-19 case."

In the same format, another meme received thousands of upvotes. The first photo showed an email in the inbox from a San Francisco-based facilities manager stating, "We're so excited to see you back in the office!" The second photo is an email with the subject line "Notification of Confirmed COVID-19 Case."

However, CNBC reported that a spokesperson for Google stated, "There has not been a significant increase in onsite COVID-19 transmission on our campuses."

"The numbers that have been reported in Playa Vista and Venice reflect total cases over the last few months, not current or active cases."

Google Return-To-Office

Google, like other tech companies, has urged its employees to return to offices. Google promotes the same hybrid work schedule and also strongly encourages its employees to get vaccinated.

CNET previously reported that the majority of Google employees were required to be in the office at least three days per week under the company's new hybrid work arrangement. The remaining two days of the week can be spent working remotely.

The tech company insisted that all of its staff members adhere to the company's vaccination policies. However, in February, prior to asking employees to return, it loosened restrictions around vaccines as well as other rules surrounding testing, social distancing, and masks.

This was done in preparation for asking employees to return. Nevertheless, vaccination against Covid-19 remained a prerequisite for entering physical offices.

Unfortunately, due to the present threat of infection, numerous employees in the company are discouraged.

Google employees are now requesting to remove the vaccine mandate, trying to argue that even in the offices where employees are fully vaccinated, Covid-19 outbreaks continue to occur anyway.