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Google employees who work from home could lose money

reuters.com

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Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#321

Post by system16 »

UncleMeat wrote: post #162
system16 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a bizarre statement. If you could just not pay your mortgage, or not make your car payments, or just walk out of a restaurant without paying and no repercussions, wouldn't you?

Generally yes, but you also don't consider your relationship with your bank to be "a family". It is useful for employees to recognize that despite everything that bosses say this is still an adversarial transaction where the bosses want to get the most labor out of the least cost.

Fair enough. I guess I've never felt that loyalty to any company and always view employment as a business agreement. "Family" rhetoric has always come off to me as marketing fluff.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#323

Post by ryneandal »

rwmj wrote: post #289
bnycum wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked from home for almost 12 years now, and I have always thought about the reverse. How much of an increase in pay would it take for me to go back into the office? Probably about 20% at least. If I were working in an office with a 2 hour commute I'd definitely take that 10% paycut to live a much better life.

I've been working from home for 18 years and there's no amount of money that would make me commute to a job. I'd take another job or work for myself rather than do it.

Kudos for 18 years at home, that's incredible! I've done ~5 years for the majority of time now, and now with four kids that need extensive time with me, I will forever take a WFH position. With discipline, it makes for an exceptional work/life balance.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#324

Post by BurningFrog »

erinan wrote: post #217
mumblemumble wrote: post #156

> One Google employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, typically commutes to the Seattle office from a nearby county and would likely see their pay cut by about 10% by working from home full-time, according estimates by the company's Work Location Tool launched in June. > The employee was considering remote work but decided to keep going to the office - despite the two-hour commute. This seems…

2-hour commute? I'll take the pay cut anytime, like is too short... (and maybe start looking for another job, easier to do with all that "extra" time)

I would too, but if you've committed 100% of your income to expenses, you don't have that freedom.

Another argument for saving a little each month.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#326

Post by UglyToad »

throwaway3b03 wrote: post #308
wutbrodo wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Therefore your math doesn't add up. 2hr commute against 8 hours of work is not a 25% increase. What? Going from 8 to 10 hours is absolutely a 25% increase. 10 is 125% of 8

The situation is a bit more complex than that. First, people don't live in the office, so even if you live closer to the workplace, you still spend a non-negligible amount of time preparing and getting there. It can easily amount to more than 30 minutes a day. And secondly, an office job can be stressful, consuming, in a way that commuting isn't (if done by train or bicycle for instance). So i wouldn't put them all i…

There's a world of difference between going for a nice cycle or taking the train to see a new place or even going for a drive in the country versus cramming onto a standing-room-only train or risking your life in rush hour traffic or crawling along the highway in a tailback. Commuting is absolutely part of work, it's an unpaid part sure, but people aren't choosing it of their own free will.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#327

Post by CydeWeys »

namdnay wrote: post #164
purple_ferret wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's that? If you live in NYC, you get paid more. People who live in NYC have the amongst the lowest carbon footprint in the nation. If you live in a dense urban area, you generally will have a lower carbon footprint.

I think the argument is that it encourages working from a big office, but actually living far away. So you're getting paid a manhattan salary but you're living in new jersey or wherever. And you're spewing out CO2 to get from one to the other every day

Most people living in NJ but working in NYC are taking trains or buses into the city, so the marginal carbon footprint there isn't as big as you might think.

There's only a couple suitable river crossings for this commute and they're already facing hour-long delays during commuting hours, so there's no room to add more cars commuting into NYC (nor anywhere for them to park in NYC anyway). Fortunately these river crossings have dedicated bus lanes during rush hour, which move more people than all the other lanes combined.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#328

Post by inetknght »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #131
shmatt wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Manhattan leases also famously start at 10 year terms as the shortest. With all the secrets going around your average FAANG office, no way would any company sublease a partial floor. Maybe an entire floor, but that creates more issues with the complicated separate lobby and elevator systems they previously built These companies could maybe cut the costs in a few years, maybe in 10-15. Most of these employees working…

> no way would any company sublease a partial floor Why not? Turn it into a co-working space. Lease it to a start-up and put up a divider.

If Google can't fill the offices because of work from home then what makes you think a start-up would be able to?

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#329

Post by hrgames »

mumblemumble wrote: post #156

> One Google employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, typically commutes to the Seattle office from a nearby county and would likely see their pay cut by about 10% by working from home full-time, according estimates by the company's Work Location Tool launched in June. > The employee was considering remote work but decided to keep going to the office - despite the two-hour commute. This seems…

At our office, HR and Finance magically turned into "No Home Office" which means that when salaries are re-adjusted to discount WFH, they dont get paycuts in HR/Finance. Basically they gamed the system to show they were never paid a premium due to a home office (despite working out of the SF office) and hence shouldnt get a paycut now.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#330

Post by jethro_tell »

lanstin wrote: post #203
mumblemumble wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of the USA, people staying home to work might have a positive impact on social interaction in the long run. I'm pretty sure a large part of the reason why Americans are so lonely compared to the rest of the world is that the suburban bedroom community model physically divides us and makes it much more difficult to get to know one's neighbors. By the time you get home from work at 6:30 in the evening, it's…

Yeah I have gotten to know my neighbors a lot better during COVID. And it is nice. And when I change jobs I won’t loose them.

I'm old, I don't really make friends with work people. I seem to be in the minority now and maybe that's because everyone I work with moved here as soon as they were done with school.

It's really strange and I sometimes feel like an outsider. But everyone's going on hikes on the weekend and going to movies together. I'm not going back into the office at this point and one thing that appeals to me about remote distributed work is that it's separate from the rest of my life. When I walk away from my laptop, it's just gone.

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