It's a bit surprising to me that a great engineer can't be properly managed to find interesting work in a company as huge as Google. I'd expect all layers of management to be engaged in finding exciting challenges for Brad.
An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
151–160 of 280 posts
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. I just forgot about them. Also, turns out you can only have one outstanding reservation at a time (so I can't have one all-day massage on my last day) and can't gift them to other employees. Oh well.
One thing that may cheer you up that although when I went back to Google, I lost my options, but got back my massage credits :)
I would negotiate my GSUs back before I'd negotiate my massage credits. :)
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#153Very unique video of Brad and Andrew hacking an HTTP/2 client: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG-UaBJXZ80 . Andrew is also a great human!
Andrew is one of my favorite humans! :)
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#154Good luck to Brad. It sounds like the last twelve years of his life were pure Google, it's a big change. > I don't want to get stuck in a comfortable rut. (And Google certainly is comfortable, except for open floor plans.) It's oddly comforting that even programmers of Brad's caliber are forced to cope with open offices. When can this fad end.
> When can this fad end It's not a fad, businesses aren't doing this just because it's trendy and cool and they think people will like it, they're doing it because it saves them a fortune and they care more about their bottom line than their employees well being.
Google just lost a top percentile developer over their open floor plan. Literally irreplaceable. But they saved a few dollars on space. That is being penny wise and pound foolish, particularly for a company like Google who is not capital constrained.
(He may not have quit directly because of the open office plan, but given that it's one of the few complaints he makes, it obviously is a factor.)
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#155I remember you from livejournal's times. It's pretty impressive path from blog to golang. Good luck on your new journeys!
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#156Good luck to Brad. It sounds like the last twelve years of his life were pure Google, it's a big change. > I don't want to get stuck in a comfortable rut. (And Google certainly is comfortable, except for open floor plans.) It's oddly comforting that even programmers of Brad's caliber are forced to cope with open offices. When can this fad end.
It's not just a fad, the trend is going deeper in that direction -- hotseating for frictionless collaboration!
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
It saves a fortune, but the companies are spending a fortune on their employees' salary and benefits too I think we're talking the difference between $300/month on open desk space vs $1000/month on an office. It's a lot of money and it adds up, but these people are costing the company a total of $10k-$40k a month My theory is that open space is extremely helpful to certain types of people, and those traits coincident…
Even sharing an office with 2-4 people isn't that bad compared to open floor. You get used to each other's quirks pretty fast and keep the door closed when serious work is going on... it doesn't have to be solo offices for every person which would dramatically increase costs.
Working at a table with my small team (4-6 people) in a small office was my favorite working environment. Any discussions are likely at least somewhat relevant to everyone. Interruptions are not constant. Quiet environment. Yet still helps enable knowledge transfer among team members.
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even sharing an office with 2-4 people isn't that bad compared to open floor. You get used to each other's quirks pretty fast and keep the door closed when serious work is going on... it doesn't have to be solo offices for every person which would dramatically increase costs.
Working at a table with my small team (4-6 people) in a small office was my favorite working environment. Any discussions are likely at least somewhat relevant to everyone. Interruptions are not constant. Quiet environment. Yet still helps enable knowledge transfer among team members.
For startups it's really not a significant expense if you do it right. We're a small team and have multiple developers in the original private office, which I'm assuming the prior occupant CEO previously used solo, and then the sales/support guy share the larger main office area. Plus all food is eaten in a common kitchen area (keeping various smells contained, which matters more in smaller offices, is quite easy via perfumes/scent policies and simply not eating at your desk).
It works great for us and lets certain personalities control the level of interaction based on their tolerance. The sales guys love to chat naturally. For the employees who cross both sales/support + dev roles where we keep 1-2 "free" desks in the grouping which you can just pull your chair too.
Multi-person office rooms is really the ideal solution. For us we could scale it up as the company grows by building a 3rd wall creating 3 offices of equal size capped at 4-6 people each.
The hard part of course is scaling beyond that as almost every office property has been previously designed for with the open-concept in mind. Building your own walls or tearing down others isn't the easiest thing to do (or get approval for) in plenty of buildings, especially older ones. But as others have mentioned it's worth its weight in gold.
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#159Good luck to Brad. It sounds like the last twelve years of his life were pure Google, it's a big change. > I don't want to get stuck in a comfortable rut. (And Google certainly is comfortable, except for open floor plans.) It's oddly comforting that even programmers of Brad's caliber are forced to cope with open offices. When can this fad end.
> When can this fad end It's not a fad, businesses aren't doing this just because it's trendy and cool and they think people will like it, they're doing it because it saves them a fortune and they care more about their bottom line than their employees well being.
[deleted]
Re: An Update on Bradfitz: Leaving Google
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When can this fad end It's not a fad, businesses aren't doing this just because it's trendy and cool and they think people will like it, they're doing it because it saves them a fortune and they care more about their bottom line than their employees well being.
Google just lost a top percentile developer over their open floor plan. Literally irreplaceable. But they saved a few dollars on space. That is being penny wise and pound foolish, particularly for a company like Google who is not capital constrained. (He may not have quit directly because of the open office plan, but given that it's one of the few complaints he makes, it obviously is a factor.)
given that it's one of the few complaints he make
It's not though. It's merely a qualification to the "Google is comfortable" comment. He says clearly the reason he's leaving is he's a bit bored. And that he doesn't want to be stuck in a comfortable rut. How would making him more comfortable with a private office address those issues?