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Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

businessinsider.com

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Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#31

Post by spamizbad »

dcolkitt wrote: post #7

It seems strange that Google management would push so hard on this. Nearly everyone I've spoken to has reported that WFH productivity has been equal, if not better than pre-pandemic. What possible upside could there be that justifies forcing the issue and hurting morale by pissing so many people off? Sure, maybe there's an argument that a fully remote company has a hard time propagating a coherent corporate culture.…

You would think the rational thing to do would be to maximize productivity and minimize cost: You can get the same or greater productivity from WFH that you can from open-plan offices, with WFH being a huge cost saver to the business.

But I do think company leadership likes the psychological aspect of everyone being in the office and are willing to take both a cost and productivity hit to fulfill this need.

Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#33

Post by whateveracct »

heliodor wrote: post #8

"I'll quit!" they say. It's about as empty a threat as telling the customer service person that you'll sue the company.

Is it? It's at-will employment. Quitting is the easiest thing in the world legally speaking.

Way more tenable than suing.

Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#34

Post by freebuju »

Headline is a bit of a reach. A few employees grumbling on Twitter does not constitute any meaningful representative given the size of Google's workforce.

That said, WFH is not for everyone. And a flexible 3-day office presence is a good healthy compromise.

Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#35

Post by ckdarby »

hpoe wrote: post #18
notdonspaulding wrote: post #14

What people say they will do when there's no cost associated with an action and what people will actually do once a cost IS associated with the same action are frequently 2 different things. Bob Lutz, in his self-aggrandizing book "Gutz", describes the initial phase of an automobile design project where a survey is conducted asking respondents whether they would prefer a vehicle with heated cupholders. It turned out…

My situtation is slightly different than the Google one, but I've already resolved if my employer makes me come back into the office with a full-time commute, I'm going to start looking for a different job right away.

I think a lot of employees are in this situation but aren't going to say this because they don't want to lose their job or have it held against them and be managed out of the company before they're told they need to come into the office.

Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#36

Post by chronicsunshine »

underseacables wrote: post #5

I travel a lot because I’m in sales, so I’m constantly in and out of the office. I very much want to return to the office, because for me it’s a homebase, where I can connect with my colleagues. It just hasn’t been the same and I feel that my workflow has diminished without the communal nature of the office.

I'm a developer and spending 1-2 hours a day to commute to an office where I have to microwave a lunch, sit in a cubicle all day, and be forced to overhear coworkers talk about inane things while I'm trying to concentrate sounds like hell to me. Working from home has increased my productivity and made work more enjoyable.

Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#37

Post by mc32 »

dcolkitt wrote: post #7

It seems strange that Google management would push so hard on this. Nearly everyone I've spoken to has reported that WFH productivity has been equal, if not better than pre-pandemic. What possible upside could there be that justifies forcing the issue and hurting morale by pissing so many people off? Sure, maybe there's an argument that a fully remote company has a hard time propagating a coherent corporate culture.…

Google isn’t Yahoo for sure and I presume they have better ways to know if people are putting in work —but... Marissa Maier had the unfortunate discovery that many of her remote workers were ghost workers. On the payroll but not doing much. Some might have even had other full-time jobs.

That’s bound to happen when you have large workforces. You have groups of people who make it so that productive people can’t have nice things. A kind of tragedy of the commons.

Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#38

Post by artembugara »

spoonjim wrote: post #20

Google doesn’t care if most employees quit, they are replaceable. The few that they do care about, they will arrange unofficial exemptions for.

1. I'd assume that a cost to replace 1 SE employee at google is close to USD 1,000,000

2. It's hard as never before to hire someone to from from the office (US tech giants are hiring many H1Bs)

So, I disagree. It can become a long-term crisis.

Re: Google's push to bring employees back to offices, some say they'll rather quit

#39

Post by Someone1234 »

spoonjim wrote: post #27
dcolkitt wrote: post #7

It seems strange that Google management would push so hard on this. Nearly everyone I've spoken to has reported that WFH productivity has been equal, if not better than pre-pandemic. What possible upside could there be that justifies forcing the issue and hurting morale by pissing so many people off? Sure, maybe there's an argument that a fully remote company has a hard time propagating a coherent corporate culture.…

“Productivity” is not something a person can measure themselves. Sure, some people may be closing bugs faster than when in the office. But productivity manifests itself in different ways over longer time periods. Is there a strong corporate culture? Are junior staff being mentored and trained? Are new product ideas like Chromecast being thought of and shipped? The individual employee is not going to be a reliable ind…

You say that like senior management typically makes decisions based on data and facts, rather than the reality where they just shoot from the hip using their "gut."

By the same logic implied here, we cannot trust senior management to know what they're doing.

PS - Also Google's measures of productivity are terrible, that's why they keep starting/killing new projects ever other week, and killed their golden goose in their so-called "20-percent rule."

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