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

nytimes.com

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

#151

Post by extra88 »

stevenicr wrote: post #142
selectodude wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two doses of the polio vaccine are 90+ percent effective. Two doses of the Moderna/Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are 95+ percent effective against any illness at all and 100 percent effective against severe illness. If the polio vaccine is your goal, it's been surpassed. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/polio/hcp/effectiveness-dur...

thanks for the clarification - I had not known polio was only at 90% - since it has been all but eradicated (?) I had assumed it was 100. I worry many others assume similar - as going back to an office with all at 80-90% I would do, but I may skip the shared bathrooms if I was really worried about it.

Polio isn’t airborne and is much less transmissible so the vaccine doesn’t need to be as effective to stop the spread. Vaccination programs were also very successful.

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

#152

Post by olliej »

jeffbee wrote: post #95
olliej wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while I was there I detested the open plan cube farm horror of their offices (at least the SF ones) they weren't even full cubes, being only half height so constant visual distraction, and they didn't completely surround you so you had people always moving around behind you. Changing how the open plan is arranged is just pointless, accept that you have made an unpleasant work environment and leave it alone so at leas…

We were all nostalgic for the half-height cubes of Google SF after it was all converted to no-height non-cubes, just desks on the floor (and they kept making the desks narrower, an inch at a time!).

when did that happen? while I was there I had a "wall" around two sides of my desk but was in a pod (?) of four

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

#153

Post by cma »

cma wrote: post #126
hpoe wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have concerns with employers requiring a vaccine to allow you to return to work because of the dangerous precedent it can set that employers have some valid need to suddenly start knowing your medical status, and once they get their foot in the door I don't see them quietly giving up that power.

Employers have always had a right to know communicable disease status (when it could be communicated feasibly at work, not for something like HIV/AIDS or other STDs). Vaccination status to such a disease is just a stochastic level above that and has been required in college dorms, etc. already before the pandemic.

Flu vaccines are often required for certain medical and elder care workers as well.

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

#154

Post by notatoad »

heavyset_go wrote: post #128
notatoad wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not only are they half-assed incomplete attempts to solve problems solved by private offices, they ignore the excellent solution to the problem open-plan offices were meant to solve: using a small office space for a large staff. if you let people work from home if they want to, you need far less office space. so instead of trying to cram in a ton of workspaces, just let people who want to work from home do that, and…

> if you let people work from home if they want to, you need far less office space. Some companies made investments in properties, or signed multiyear leases, before the pandemic happened. I know of a couple that are itching to get people back to work in-person.

yeah, i get that companies have space and want to make use of it. but that's my point - they can still make use of that space, and give everybody working on-site a better experience, by simply allowing people to work at home if they want to.

There's plenty of people who actually do want to work from an office. it's not like offices will be empty if you simply let people work from home. especially if you stop forcing people to work in a fishbowl and make the office an actual productive place where people can get focused work done.

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

#155

Post by kyleee »

the_local_host wrote: post #134
HDMI_Cable wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if you’re trying to have half (or fewer) people at the office, you can have the same office assigned to two people, making it just as efficient as an open-office.

I suspect that would devolve into endless fights over cleanliness and storage of personal items.

No doubt it would be a pain point

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

#156

Post by akomtu »

dragonwriter wrote: post #68
akomtu wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This kind of requires everyone else to play along, otherwise the winner is the big, real-estate heavy corporations that keep doing their core business without bringing people back on campus, and convert surplus real estate to some other profit making venture (whether they run it themselves, or spin/sell it off.) As first mover advantage would be an issue here, it would be a pretty big gamble for Google to try to sign…

Those giant offices are often built in downtown areas next to shopping, eating and renting places that will all go bankrupt if nobody comes to the offices. I can totally see how the top brass at google owns a part of that commerce and that there are contracts with deadlines there, so if they don't bring employees on time, they'll suffer massive personal losses.

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

#157

Post by ffggvv »

UncleMeat wrote: post #137
throwawaygler1 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been meme-ing about it, but I don't think leadership cares anymore. Instead, I just told my manager that there's 99% chance I'm leaving over the summer, it's a good excuse to take some time off after this crazy year anyways.

Yeah I'm never returning to the office. VP exception or bust. I'm frankly stunned that the company seems to be completely okay with the attrition they are going to see in September.

the company doesn’t care about employees below a certain level. there’s hundreds of thousands of them and many more clamoring to get in. i still haven’t forgiven them for cancelling promos a year ago

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

#158

Post by ffggvv »

iudqnolq wrote: post #79
mLuby wrote: post #75

> Google is trying to get a handle on how employees will react to so-called hybrid work. In July, the company asked workers how many days a week they would need to come to the office to be effective. The answers were divided evenly in a range of zero to five days a week. "My responses are limited; you must ask the right questions." What getting your whole team together for 1-2 weeks per quarter? I hear some teams tra…

The "at our scale" is doing a lot of work there. Once you're split into different campuses I'm not sure why increased size makes remote harder.

not even just different offices. the mountain view campus is so huge people in different buildings neber see each other in person

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

#159

Post by novok »

summerlight wrote: post #118
imgabe wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need to build brand new office buildings from the ground up. They can renovate existing spaces, lease new space and renovate. That could be done in 6 months, tops, if they really wanted to.

AFAIK, it's what they're already doing; Google is one of the largest real estate purchaser in the bay area, consistently spending billions of dollars each year on office spaces. The problem is their growth of workforce has been consistently outpacing their real estate expansion. Probably Google can simply slowdown their speed of hiring, but this might be a deal breaker; office space already has been a major constrain…

A lot of office space has just opened up because of covid, it's a great opportunity to snatch it up.

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

#160

Post by novok »

ghaff wrote: post #48
scribu wrote: post #41

The Campfire meeting room seems interesting. Giving remote participants a proportionate physical presence should help equal the playing field. I think it hinges on how easy it is to set up the call, so that each face is on a separate screen.

Or, you know, have everyone "dial in" from their own computer. That was how a number of teams I work with were pre-pandemic. If anyone's remote, everyone calls in separately. Otherwise the remote experience is inherently going to be worse than the in-person one. That's been one mildly positive aspect of the pandemic. I'm no longer dialing into calls where there are a bunch of people in a conference room and then ther…

You need private offices or the feedback gets really bad really quick.
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