Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 1001 posts

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#31

Post by colinmhayes »

formerly_proven wrote: post #20
foogazi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean ?

"Despite shipping more than ever and having higher velocity than ever before remote work clearly does not work hence you must return to the office"

I do think there's something to be said for the long term culture effects remote work has. Maybe the current employees who used to work in the office are more efficient remote, but is the same true for new remote workers? What about in a few years when a large percentage of the employees may have never worked in the office at Google?

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#32

Post by vinnymac »

From my visits to Google's offices in Manhattan, I don't expect many who reside within the city, to resist this change. People will accept leaving their small city apartments and visiting the vast offices, with a plethora of services available as a welcome alternative after two years. It's those who've moved on from that lifestyle, and may have physically relocated, who will resist this change. They will be inclined to make an argument for working remotely, or work elsewhere, whatever works.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#33

Post by Gigachad »

infamouscow wrote: post #4

After two years of not being in the office, I don't see how anyone can justify going into the office without putting themselves into a quagmire of hypocrisy and contradiction.

If I was working at Google I'd want to be in the office just for the experience. Know someone who did work at Google for a few years and he said he would often bump in to incredible people in the rec areas and get to talk to all kinds of interesting figures like the creator of Vim or some of the top brains of ML. It's a bit different when you are just pumping out some generic SaaS product and can do fine in isolation at home.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#34

Post by TranquilMarmot »

jdlyga wrote: post #22

I work for a large company, and my team has changed so much since before covid. Before Covid: 5 people in the same New York office, 1 remote in Europe Today: 2 in New York, 2 in California, 1 in Ohio, 1 in Europe There is no single office to return to. Though we could meet up with other coworkers on different teams and projects. But in essence we've become a remote team. Has anyone else's teams become geographically…

This happened at my last job before I left. We had ~50 employees working at an office in Seattle.

The pandemic hit, we went remote, and there was basically a mass exodus out of Seattle. I think only about 20 people were still in Seattle by the time I left (for another job that's 100% remote with people scattered throughout the globe). It took the company almost two years to start adjusting salaries...

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#35

Post by yodsanklai »

barkerja wrote: post #23
foogazi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean ?

I believe they mean from the perspective of the employer. If a team has been able to fully function these past two years and the employees prefer working from home, there's little — if any — justification the employer can make for the return to office.

Playing devil's advocate, because I enjoy remote working, but it's not the same thing to have a full team remote, and only half of the team.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#36

Post by [deleted] »

jefb wrote: post #5

Mandates? "Since last June, Google has approved nearly 14,000 employees globally to transfer to a new location or go fully remote, Casey said. About 15% of applications have been denied, he added." "Employees not prepared to return April 4 also can seek a remote-work extension, Google said."

[deleted]

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#37

Post by [deleted] »

jefb wrote: post #5

Mandates? "Since last June, Google has approved nearly 14,000 employees globally to transfer to a new location or go fully remote, Casey said. About 15% of applications have been denied, he added." "Employees not prepared to return April 4 also can seek a remote-work extension, Google said."

[deleted]

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#38

Post by awslattery »

jdlyga wrote: post #22

I work for a large company, and my team has changed so much since before covid. Before Covid: 5 people in the same New York office, 1 remote in Europe Today: 2 in New York, 2 in California, 1 in Ohio, 1 in Europe There is no single office to return to. Though we could meet up with other coworkers on different teams and projects. But in essence we've become a remote team. Has anyone else's teams become geographically…

COVID definitely helped push my recommendation that our small team move to full-remote, and start to transition to more asynchronous work. It's great being able to hire outside of our local market (especially for SWE talent), and we won't be renewing the lease on our albeit small office this year (moving to grant coworking or at-home furniture/equipment reimbursement).

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#39

Post by Graffur »

09bjb wrote: post #28
foogazi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean ?

$GOOG stock has pretty much doubled since the beginning of the pandemic, meaning the company has been having absolutely no trouble whatsoever doing its job with a fully remote workforce for 2 years now. They don't "need" employees to come back to the office.

I don't think the stock price reflects that too much. You can't attribute the doubling to workers being at home. If it dipped when workers went back to the office.. that also would not mean much.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#40

Post by Gigachad »

gsich wrote: post #6
c7DJTLrn wrote: post #3

Do Googlers mind working in the office much? They get plenty of free meals/snacks/beverages, great equipment, and great salary allowing them to live close to the office and pay for childcare if needed. I can't see the rest of the industry moving in the direction of returning to the office, because they don't have these things.

Commute sucks. Anything above 30min for one way is unbearable.

Pretty sure google has their own bus with internet / capability to work on the way.
Post reply on HN