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

161–170 of 1001 posts

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

#161

Post by post-it »

kcb wrote: post #151
librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

> We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Most big tech companies are public. Record earnings and stock prices throughout the pandemic prove more than just not crashing and burning.

Record earnings and stock prices are not necessarily due to remote work. They could be despite it.

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

#162

Post by thebean11 »

msoad wrote: post #89
librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

Have you ever walked between buildings to catch a meeting? I remember this from my Google days and I hated it. Ironically at some point they were cool with video calling in from another building!!

Why did you hate it? An excuse to take a walk in Bay Area weather in the middle of the day doesn't seem that bad to me.

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

#163

Post by babypuncher »

librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

My company is going hybrid in the spring (2 days in office, 3 days WFH), which I think is a good approach. There is definitely something to be gained from face to face time with co-workers. There is also something to be said of the improved productivity of working at home and not dealing with a long commute or random distractions.

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

#164

Post by cortesoft »

kcb wrote: post #151
librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

> We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Most big tech companies are public. Record earnings and stock prices throughout the pandemic prove more than just not crashing and burning.

Hard to draw that conclusion when everyone was forced to go remote… they weren’t competing with non-remote companies.

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

#165

Post by googler519524 »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #115
msoad wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever walked between buildings to catch a meeting? I remember this from my Google days and I hated it. Ironically at some point they were cool with video calling in from another building!!

It sucks in the Norcal office but if you're in any of the other offices the max distance is not too bad.

laughs in New York City at getting lost in stairwells of the original 111 8th Ave building or Chelsea market building, and soon (not) going between Chelsea and Hudson Square.

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

#166

Post by paxys »

vgel wrote: post #135
paxys wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both engineers and managers at big tech companies can get by working 2 hours a day. And remote vs on-site doesn't affect that. This has been true since well before WFH. As for the location-based pay part, I bet none of the people who were furious about getting "adjusted" after moving out of the Bay Area ever complained about their colleagues in Bangalore working the same amount as them and making 1/5 as much.

> As for the location-based pay part, I bet none of the people who were furious about getting "adjusted" after moving out of the Bay Area ever complained about their colleagues in Bangalore working the same amount as them and making 1/5 as much. That's not just either, even if people didn't complain about it. Sometimes it takes a bad thing happening to someone for them to realize injustice that existed before. I woul…

If someone is truly in favor of comp reform and thinks that everyone at the company should get paid based on their value rather than where they are located, are they going to be okay with accepting a salary adjustment that is ~50% of the way between Silicon Valley and India wages?

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

#167

Post by asd88 »

bubblicious wrote: post #14

this is only for those who have opted to not be fully remote. those folks have a reserved physical desk / office space at which they will be required to go 3 days per week starting apr 4th. They may switch to fully remote but cannot keep a dedicated physical spot if they do so. source: googler

Microsoft is doing something similar where you can choose hybrid work or fully remote. Personally, I think, with hybrid work, fully remote workers will go back to being second class citizens at those companies if most people choose to go back to the office (even part time).

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

#168

Post by sixstringtheory »

ejb999 wrote: post #148
sixstringtheory wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> disappear for days at a time, miss meetings for weeks at a time How is this not an immediately fireable offense? At least at the point of reestablishing contact where a doctor’s note or equivalent excuse can’t be furnished…

I absolutely agree - and if it was upto me, they would be gone already - but when the manager is also one of those 'do as little as I can' types of people, they don't really want to open that particular can of worms.

Fair enough, that’s a bummer of a situation. I was alternatively wondering if it was some kind of contracted work.

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

#169

Post by time_to_smile »

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.

Being in a "quagmire of hypocrisy and contradiction" has never been a problem for large corporations (or even small companies) in my entire career.

Never once have I pointed out an obviously ridiculous contradiction in practices "but won't this actually hurt our customers?" and had the response be anything near "oh no! you're right, better fix that!"

Remote work is a great example: long before pandemic most C-level execs and other important personal were almost never in the office, always attend meeting remotely (sometimes even just by phone), and yet love to talk about how work can't happen without everyone being in the office. Trust me if you can manage the entire company from your Florida vacation home, I'm sure we can get these models deployed to production from my home office.

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

#170

Post by thebean11 »

dsl wrote: post #143
librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

> I personally prefer a company where everyone's on site. I want to be able to quickly resolve any issues in person, not over voice call or slack That works for companies with less than 100 engineers. Everyone seems to have forgotten the good ol days where you had in person meetings and had to dial in half the team from Europe or include Fred who is working from home.

It doesn't matter how many engineers there are as long as the teams are colocated. Yes you will need to have zoom meetings with other teams but interaction within the team can be almost fully in person.
Post reply on HN