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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

#91

Post by xhkkffbf »

mc32 wrote: post #37
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 ni…

I worked with a guy on a project who was simultaneously running two developers teams in India on the side. He knew the local stack inside and out so he was incredibly useful, but he could generate his insights and do his job in 30-60 minutes each day.

Was he WFH? Nope. He was running these teams from his desk in the cubicle farm. And he was relatively open about it too with management. But he knew so much that everyone kept him around.

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

#92

Post by elite_hackers3 »

sriram_sun wrote: post #83
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…

GOOG folks, FB is recruiting stressing on "remote". Call a recruiter today!

But then you’d have to work for Facebook… cringe

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

#93

Post by ok_coo »

willcipriano wrote: post #43
dboreham wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because above a certain level managers derive their sense of self-worth from the number of physical people surrounding them?

Something I've been thinking about is that your typical rank and file employees work is pretty transparent. I created 6 widgets, I served 4 customers, I wrote 100 lines of code. Middle management that isn't really true, they can mill around and informally talk with people as part of their work. If everyone is remote, middle management's efforts become much more measurable.

This is a good point. What I've noticed for our org is that it's much more apparent which managers are quality and are able to help out their team and more, and which where obviously just filling up their work days with meetings, and meetings about meetings.

I feel that the latter are the type of managers who want everyone back in the office.

I'm going to stay WFH, if my org want to keep me, that will be a requirement. My quality of life has jumped and I'm not moving back to a high COL city just because a manager wants facetime.

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

#95

Post by alexwilde »

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.…

Having read Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock, It does not seem that strange to me...

The Google culture and leadership, right or wrong, hold on to the belief that the spaces they cultivate, do more than just enhance productivity. For example, they believe that (regardless of how rare it may be) their spaces create opportunities for teams to bump into each other and build solutions/products out of that.

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

#96

Post by occz »

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.

This take entirely ignores the invested human capital, which you lose entirely when you drive a worker to quit. Google have invested a lot into retaining their workers as well, so I'm sure that they know that as well.

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

#97

Post by ok_coo »

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.

Are we pretending our industry has a glut of experienced people begging for work?

GL to all of the inflexible employers out there.

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

#98

Post by MattGaiser »

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…

Should have tried chilled cupholders.

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

#99

Post by [deleted] »

FooBarBizBazz wrote: post #87
chronicsunshine wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You get a whole cubicle ?

[deleted]

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

#100

Post by lmkg »

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.…

Think about the type of workplace that Google offers, and why they offer that. Professional kitchens, on-site laundry, the bikes, getting speakers to come in and give talks, all that stuff.

Google wants to be more than just a job to its employees. They want "being a Googler" to be a part of their employees life and part of their identity. (I'm not saying this as criticism.)

So, what would Google prefer: An upset Googler, or a happy productive person who is employed by Google? I can see why it might be easier to retain the former than the latter. Especially if they think this is a temporary thing that will blow over, and they might be right.

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