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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

#51

Post by mox1 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #39
spoonjim wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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 th…

Can't trust the senior managers of one of the largest revenue generating companies on the plant? With probably the highest Revenue per employee ever in the history of modern business (if not highest, up there).

I dunno, seems like they are doing ok at their jobs....

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

#53

Post by mrweasel »

rightbyte wrote: post #9

It would be interesting to know the median commute time for those who say they will quit or not. For me it is just insane even thinking about going to go back to 2h commute each day. I don't even know why I considered that OK.

I only have a 15 min drive to work, and while working from home makes a few things easier, like picking up my daughter from daycare, the benefits of the office easily compete with the 30 - 35 minute commute.

I get better working conditions, better coffee, better lunch and I feel like I’m not alone during difficult tasks.

Ideally I’d like to work from home one or two days week, and be at the office the remaining days.

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

#54

Post by [deleted] »

elite_hackers3 wrote: post #46
Someone1234 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

This is one of the worst comments I’ve ever read.

[deleted]

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

#55

Post by havkom »

jedimastert wrote: post #42
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.…

> Nearly everyone I've spoken to has reported that WFH productivity has been equal, if not better than pre-pandemic. I feel like this should be taken with a grain of salt, depending on what your bubble looks like.

The workload of managers have probably increased as well. This may not be sustainable for all organizations?

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

#56

Post by Jiejeing »

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.

Same, there are plenty of competitive offers, and if I cannot upgrade my lifestyle (no commute, house instead of studio, etc) with my current employer, so be it.

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

#57

Post by seg_lol »

spoonjim wrote: post #44
Someone1234 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Yet somehow, these boneheads haven’t driven Google to bankruptcy yet, so I don’t think their decisionmaking authority is in immediate jeopardy.

You don't have to make good decisions when you are riding the Ads Rocket!

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

#59

Post by macksd »

I've always been mystified by the state of remote work at Google, because I understood that they pushed pretty hard on being in the office.

And yet I've had many video conference calls with various teams at Google over the last 8 years and in every single one, most of the Googlers on the call were obviously dialing in from home. I even flew to Mountain View once for a big all-day meeting. I got there, met my coworkers in the lobby, and was escorted to a conference room by a manager who dialed us in for the video conference with all the engineers at home. I can't think of a time I've interacted with a group of Googlers in their office.

Was this really not the norm? Is it the norm for engineers but not for everyone else or something?

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

#60

Post by throwaways885 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #39
spoonjim wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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 th…

> and killed their golden goose in their so-called "20-percent rule."

This is factually untrue. The only difference is Google is much larger, making it harder to launch new products.

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