As COVID-19 loses its novelty, companies are resorting to creative measures to coax their employees back into office spaces, by hook or by crook. Google has joined the ranks of companies implementing stricter policies to encourage employees to return to the office more frequently. 

In an internal communication, the company informed its employees that non-compliance with the three-day minimum requirement for in-office work could potentially impact their performance review, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Google has no intentions of expanding the number of employees working from home on a full-time basis. The company has stated that it will only entertain fully remote arrangements in exceptional circumstances.

"Our employees have been in our hybrid work model for over a year now—spending three days a week in the office and the other two working from home. It’s going well, and we want to see Googlers connecting and collaborating in-person, so we’re limiting remote work to exception only,” Google spokesperson Ryan Lamont told Fortune in an email.

Over a year ago, Google initiated a policy requiring employees to spend three days a week in the office. This change came after two years of remote work necessitated by pandemic-related limitations. Initially, the implementation of this policy encountered logistical challenges as a result of a significant influx of returning employees.

"Our hybrid approach is designed to incorporate the best of being together in person with the benefits of working from home for part of the week. Now that we're more than a year into this way of working, we’re formally integrating this approach into all of our workplace policies,” Lamont said.