Over the years, Google (GOOGL) has gained a reputation for having some of the best worker perks out there.
Along with the expansive health coverage and leave policies, everything from well-stocked cafeterias and snack bars to the on-site massage therapists and meditation classes for employees have entered corporate lore as a reason it is a top company to work for.
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But as economic tides shift, such "extras" are often the first to go. An internal memo sent out by Alphabet's Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said that the company is increasingly looking to find "areas of spending that aren't as effective as they should be."
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Some Major Google Perks Are Coming To An End
The memo, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, named not just employee travel and entertainment but office snack bars and worker cafeterias as areas where the company is looking to cut back. Some "microkitchens" will be cut entirely while others will only operate on days when the most people are in the office.
A separate email first obtained by CNBC went one step further and identified staplers, tape and employee laptops as tools slated for cost-cutting. One facility directive working out of the San Francisco offices told CNBC that they had been asked to "pull all tape/dispensers throughout the building" and instead "borrow" these items from reception desks.
Employees entitled for a laptop will also automatically get a Google Chromebook instead of being offered a choice between an Apple (AAPL) MacBook.
"Now that most of us are in 3 days a week, we've noticed our supply/demand ratios are a bit out of sync: We've baked too many muffins on a Monday, seen GBuses run with just one passenger, and offered yoga classes on a Friday afternoon when folks are more likely to be working from home," the second internal email obtained by CNBC reads.
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While framed by Porat as being part of "big, multi-year efforts" for greater "velocity and efficiency," Google's cost-cutting choices have already placed it on shaky grounds with some employees.
After the company cut more than 12,000 jobs in January 2023, thousands of workers both in and outside the U.S. staged a series of protests in solidarity with their colleagues.
A former Googler who left on his own at the start of 2023, Praveen Seshadri also published a viral blog post about how the company had "slowly ceased to function" amid what in his opinion was "(1) no mission, (2) no urgency, (3) delusions of exceptionalism [and] (4) mismanagement."
When it comes to the decreased snacks and classes, Google's position is that the company is cutting some of the expansive perks and entertainment it offers in order to avoid more difficult decisions as well as readjusting to a post-pandemic environment in which fewer people work from the office.
"Just as we did in 2008, we'll be looking at data to identify other areas of spending that aren’t as effective as they should be, or that don't scale at our size," Porat wrote in the staff memo. "This work is particularly vital because of our recent growth, the challenging economic environment, and our incredible investment opportunities to drive technology forward — particularly in AI."
