Google adds limits to ‘Work from anywhere’ policy that started with Covid

Google continues to impose restrictions on remote working, this time with a popular policy called “Work from Anywhere” that was put in place during the Covid pandemic.

The policy allows employees to work from a location outside of their primary office for up to four weeks per calendar year. According to internal documents seen by CNBC, working remotely for even one day will now count as a full week.

“Whether you log 1 day of WFA or 5 days of WFA in a given standard work week, 1 week of WFA will be deducted from your weekly WFA balance,” according to a document that circulated over the summer, shortly before the change took effect.

Google is not changing its current hybrid schedule, which was also implemented during the pandemic, allowing employees to work from home two days a week. WFA days are separate from this policy, giving staff the option to work remotely, but not from home.

“WFA weeks cannot be used to work from or near home,” the document states.

Google did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Tech companies are increasingly forcing their employees to spend more time in the office, with the Covid peak being around five years ago. Microsoft said last month that employees will have to work in an office three days a week starting next year, abandoning a policy that allowed most to work from home 50% of the time or more with manager approval. Amazon went further by asking the company’s employees to spend five days a week in the office.

Google began offering voluntary furloughs to some full-time U.S. employees in early 2025 and informed remote workers in several units that their jobs could be terminated if they did not return to the office to work a hybrid schedule.

Under the latest changes, employees cannot work from a Google office in a separate state or country during their WFA period due to the “legal and financial implications of working across borders.” If in a different location, employees may be required to work during business hours that correspond to that time zone, the rules state.

The WFA update does not apply to all Google employees and may exclude data center workers and those who need to be in physical offices. Violations of the policy will result in disciplinary action or termination, the document states.

The issue was raised at a recent all-hands meeting.

A top-rated question submitted on Google’s internal system described the update as “confusing.”

“Why does a single WFA day count as an entire week, and can we reconsider restricting the use of WFA weeks to work from home?” says the question.

John Casey, Google’s vice president of performance and rewards, said during the meeting that WFA “was meant to meet Googlers where they are during the pandemic,” according to audio obtained by CNBC.

“The policy was always intended to be implemented in one-week increments and not to be used as a substitute for working from home as part of a regular hybrid work week,” Casey said.

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