Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs • Hacker News Board

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#51

Post by dang » Sat, May 01, 2021, 8:45 PM UTC

srswtf123 wrote: post #9

Am I the only one that doesn't really want to live in any version of the future as imagined by Google?

The article's baity title is not the article. Please let's react to the latter, not the former.

It can be helpful to remember that at big media sites, headlines get written by headline specialists. It's their job to sex up the title, and the rest of our job (the rest of us's job?) not to take the bait. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

I've replaced the title with a suitably neutral, representative sentence from the article body. There nearly always is one.

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#52

Post by throwaway316943 » Sat, May 01, 2021, 8:51 PM UTC

sagivo wrote: post #39

If top tech companies want to keep attracting top talent, they will have to let people choose where they want to work from. That means being open to remote. Instead of forcing hybrid models - invest in tools and processes that make working from everywhere more productive.

Exactly, a truly innovative company would be working on a way to make WFH as immersive, productive and social as an office rather than trying to make the office function during a pandemic.

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#53

Post by cmelbye » Sat, May 01, 2021, 8:57 PM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #14

If I need to wear a mask, I don't need to be in an office. This is horrifying.

Seriously, this piece is so bizarre.

> Employees can return to their permanent desks on a rotation schedule that assigns people to come into the office on a specific day to ensure that no one is there on the same day as their immediate desk neighbors.

Why does it matter if I'm wearing a mask or sitting next to someone in an "office of the future" where the pandemic has already abated?

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#54

Post by phillipcarter » Sat, May 01, 2021, 8:59 PM UTC

akomtu wrote: post #45

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #34

I want to see what statistics management are looking at where going into an office is better than the current WFH arraignment. Tech stocks are at all time highs with the current work situation. I'm personally never working full time in an office again. I can only see an office being good for junior engineers.

Real estate prices, probably. I remember google has something like 100B in assets. If it's necessary to make employees suffer to keep the RE prices up, they will.

Yep. The entire article can be summarized as "SUNK COSTS!" and all the balloons and "gen-z friendly" office layouts are just them putting on a show.

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#55

Post by fooker » Sat, May 01, 2021, 8:59 PM UTC

jaytaylor wrote: post #11

908B64B197 wrote: post #10

There's a good alternative to the open floor plans everyone is building: noise insulated "pods" with 10~12 devs and a meeting room.

Both open office plans and pods sound more like breeding grounds for human transmitted illness and disease, not a future I'm keen to optimize for.

This is why you have an immune system.

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#56

Post by ghaff » Sat, May 01, 2021, 9:00 PM UTC

0xEFF wrote: post #36

zrail wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought FB went permanent remote option. Did that change?

You may be thinking of Twitter.

Not as extreme as Twitter but Facebook has definitely indicated they'll be increasingly open to remote work:

https://www.theverge.com/facebook/2020/5/21/21265699/faceboo...

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#57

Post by phillipcarter » Sat, May 01, 2021, 9:03 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #38

bitwize wrote: post #22

What the hell?! Give. Developers. Offices. With. Doors. It's conceptually simple, and will probably cost less than this novelty shit in the long run.

Microsoft once ran ads for programmers, offering an office with a door.

My experience over the past 6 years with offices at MS was being doubled up in an office meant for one person, then moving to team rooms where we're at the fire safety limit for number of occupants.

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#58

Post by okareaman » Sat, May 01, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

> The company will encourage — but not mandate — that employees be vaccinated

I wouldn't want to spend a good part of the day indoors with people who aren't vaccinated

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#59

Post by gpm » Sat, May 01, 2021, 9:09 PM UTC

novok wrote: post #21

Those balloon walls seems the worst possible solution. Noisy, obnoxious, slow, fragile and doesn't create any sound privacy from whatever you will be talking about.

And makes it blatantly obvious that you're setting up to talk about things in private...

Seriously, just have some rooms with doors. Even if that's not the majority of the space.

Re: Over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs

#60

Post by secfirstmd » Sat, May 01, 2021, 9:11 PM UTC

A balloon wall? Hahahahaha, is this an episode of Silicon Valley? Forcing people to commute in order to wear masks at their hot desk? Google needs to admit reality that WFH is a reality, rather than trying to lever people into the office.