--- title: "Google Instructs Workers to Share Desks to Cut Costs" description: "As the company's AI war woes (spoiler: it's losing) build, CNBC reports that Google has officially commanded its employees to start sharing desks." date: "2023-02-24" modified: "2023-02-24" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-workers-share-desks" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" - "Google" tags: - "Google" - "silicon valley" - "tech industry" - "the digest" --- # Google Instructs Workers to Share Desks to Cut Costs ![As the company's AI war woes (spoiler: it's losing) build, CNBC reports that Google has officially commanded its employees to start sharing desks.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## No Desk for You The rise and fall of the Bean Bag Empire continues. Amid Google's mounting [AI war]() woes — spoiler: [it's losing]() — *CNBC* [now reports that]() the company has officially commanded its loyal Googlers to start sharing desks. "Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler," reads the internal memo, according to *CNBC*. "Through the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment." The decision, per *CNBC*, is being chalked up to "real estate efficiency" in a hybrid-work world. In a fluid office environment, no one needs all that space — especially not a company that [lost a cool $100 billion]() after its AI screwed up very publicly. According to *CNBC*, the model — internally dubbed "Cloud Office Evolution" or "CLOE" and reportedly described in a separate internal document as a company effort to "\[combine\] the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility" of hybrid work — will be implemented at Google Cloud's five biggest campuses. Some buildings, that same document reportedly noted, will ultimately be "vacated." Oof. ## So 2014 If it's any consolation, *CNBC* reports that the Googlers were told that deskmates can alternate office days. And this time around, they weren't warned by any managers that there would be "[blood on the streets]()" if productivity doesn't increase. So, you know, small wins. Still, the change is yet another blow to Googlers everywhere who, until recently, have long enjoyed the cushy perks of the ping-pong-happy, pre-pandemic Silicon Valley work culture — a culture that, in the wake of [several high-profile]() [industry layoffs]() and widespread [cost-cutting measures](), increasingly feels like a soon-to-be-relic of the tech industry's past. "Not every cost-cutting measure needs to be word mangled into sounding good for employees," one employee fumed on an internal messaging platform, according to *CNBC*. "A simple 'We are cutting office space to reduce costs' would make leadership sound more believable." ## For the Kids For its part, Google says the change has everything to do with their Googlers' happiness, actually. "Our data show Cloud Googlers value guaranteed in-person collaboration when they are in the office," a Google spokesperson told *CNBC*, "as well as the option to work from home a few days each week." "With this feedback," they added, "we've developed our new rotational model, combining the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility and focus we've all come to appreciate from remote work, while also allowing us to use our spaces more efficiently." In any case, at least the Googlers are still better off than their [peers at Tesla](). **READ MORE:** [*Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing*]() \[*CNBC*\] **More on Google:** [Google Denies Using AI to Pick Which Employees to Fire]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()