Google’s Boulder employees to return to the office with hybrid model

BOULDER — Google’s roughly 1,500 workers in Boulder will return to their offices for at least a few days a week starting next month as the tech giant’s voluntary work-from-home period is set to sundown on April 4.

Most employees will spend approximately three days in the office and two days working where they choose, a media relations representative working with Google told BizWest in an email.

“Our hybrid model balances the best of being together in person and being anywhere — where teams can intentionally come together to collaborate and connect in the office, and spend the other days working from wherever best suits their needs,” Google said. 

Individual Googlers can request “work from anywhere” weeks, location transfers or fully remote work if the company’s hybrid model isn’t ideal. 

“Our move toward a hybrid work model reflects our commitment to Colorado’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Google Boulder’s site lead and senior engineering director Bhavna Chhabra said in an emailed statement provided to BizWest. “We’ve long believed that in-person collaboration is key to building community, driving innovation, supporting creativity, and solving complex problems. The last two years have proven that Google’s spirit of collaboration and investment in the Boulder community remains strong no matter where we work, and we’re excited to explore this new hybrid approach to work starting in April.”

Over the past decade and a half, Google has become one of Boulder’s biggest tech players in terms of real estate and employee base.

Google’s first local foothold came with its acquisition of SketchUp in 2006, a company that was eventually divested in 2012.

Since then, the company has built a three-building, roughly 300,000-square-foot campus at 2930 Pearl St., taken over a nearly 160,000-square-foot facility at 3333 Walnut St. that was formerly home to CA Technologies Inc., and occupied smaller offices at 2590 Pearl St. and 2600 Pearl St. 

The company had also occupied space at 2525 28th St., once home to workers with Google Nest, which makes smart-home devices such as thermostats, cameras and smoke alarms. Nest has been rolled into the larger Google operation and moved to other offices.

Most recently, Google paid $97.8 million for its new, roughly 125,000-square-foot office space in Boulder at The Reve, a recently completed mixed-use project at 30th and Pearl streets.

Google employs approximately 1,500 people in Boulder, but that number has been somewhat dynamic of late as many Googlers have been working remotely from all corners of the country and globe. Google also has about 100 employees in offices in Thornton.

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