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by tytso 1523 days ago
Actually, it is only going to be enabled for "work mode". It is not being turned on for everyone by default. Certainly not if you are talking about the consumer version of Google Docs, and not even all paid versions of Google Workspace. So not only does your employer have to pay for the feature, they may have to pay extra if they are currently purchasing one of the cheaper tiers of service.

Specifically, it is only going to be enabled for these editions of Google Workspace: Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus

It is *not* going to be enabled for: Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Standard, Frontline, Nonprofits, G Suite Basic and Business customers

Even for those business accounts where this feature is enabled, the Workspace Admin for that domain can turn these stylistic suggestions on or off. (And you can turn off the inclusive language suggestions, while leaving other suggestions, such as for "concise language" on or off. There is a certain amount of granularity as to which classes of stylistic suggestions are enabled or not.) And users can also turn it on or off for themselves, regardless of what your Workspace Admin has decided about the defaults.

So sorry for bursting your righteous outrage bubble, but the intent is to enable this for those companies that might want to nudge their employees towards using more professional style of language. And if you don't like that, you can always leave and go work for some other employer....

1 comments

I thought this was a great explanation up until I got to the unnecessary quip apologizing for "bursting my righteous outrage bubble". I haven't exhibited any outrage in my simple question so I don't know why you felt it necessary to add that.
They way you phrased your "simple question": "Then why don't they give the option to enable this in a "work mode" and not turn it on for everyone by default?" assumed that Google had turned it on for everyone, and it read as if you thought that was unreasonable and outrageous.

It might be nice if people assumed good faith, as opposed to assuming that anything that $BIG_COMPANY might do is unreasonable and evil. Certainly many people on these threads immediately leapt to the assumption that it was enabled for everyone and was trying to coerce people into some kind of DEI hell that conservatives hate.

I think you read a little too far into my original question since there isn't any indicator of how I feel about this one way or another. Though, to your second point, $BIG_COMPANY doesn't always have the general public's best interests at heart, especially not Google, so it's not hard to see why people are skeptical or worried about this sort of a change.