Another factor to consider is that, at huge companies, not all management has a unified vision. It is entirely likely that the article source's manager and the

Another factor to consider is that, at huge companies, not all management has a unified vision. It is entirely likely that the article source's manager and the next manager above him/her disliked the spreadsheet while the "official HR position" on the matter was given at some kind of large meeting. I work at an enterprise with ~5,000 employees, and attitudes toward topics like transparency vary wildly, even in cases where there is an official company stance. This is because it is common to give managers a lot of freedom to manage their departments without interference. So, for example, our company has a pretty good work-from-home policy, but your manager is completely allowed to ban it in your department if he or she feels like it. Basically, it is possible that both sources are mostly accurate, and they represent the perspectives from different parts/levels of the company at Google.