Google CEO Sundar Pichai has decided to make its weekly all-hands meetings, known as TGIF, to a once-monthly, strictly-business meeting with a “focus on product and business strategy” rather than internal politics and hold separate town halls for “important workplace issues,” according to the internal company email obtained by The Verge.
“TGIF has traditionally provided a place to come together, share progress, and ask questions, but it’s not working in its current form,” Pichai wrote in the email explaining the meeting change. He noted that Google is “unfortunately seeing a coordinated effort to share our conversations outside of the company after every TGIF.”
Further, Pichai in his note referred to recent leaks given by the employees to the media. “I know this is new information to many of you, and it has affected our ability to use TGIF as a forum for candid conversations on important topics.”
Pichai also wrote that employees “come to TGIF with different expectations,” with some looking to hear about “product launches and business strategies” and others looking for “answers on other topics.” He added that “by splitting the difference every week, we’re not serving either purpose very well.”
He also noted that only around 25% of Google’s workforce watches TGIF any given week, as compared to 80% almost a decade ago.
“We’re hoping this mix of forums will provide a better experience for Googlers,” he said in the email. “We know you have only so much time to attend meetings and we want to spend it well. We also have to account for how we spend our time as a company. In fact, we owe it to our users to be relentlessly focused on our mission and our goal to build a more helpful Google for everyone.”
According to the note, Google’s TGIF team will establish “small group discussions” for feedback on the changes.
For those unaware, Google has been facing the problem of leaks for the last few years now with Pichai also expressing concerns over the same.
In the past, employees have used leaks to protest on topics like sexual harassment to gender inequality to government hires and contracts leading to an increase in tension between executives and workers. With the move to curtail the TGIF meetings, the company is looking to crack down on the sharing of information across the company.
