They announced they were trying a flexible work week like 9 months ago, and the "news" a week ago was about a return to office announced at that same time. Nothing has changed except that we have more information about the specifics, and "protests" is massively overstating it, NYT articles notwithstanding.

Somebody's just decided that every company email from Sundar needs a public article within an hour that totally strips out all relevant context.