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

reuters.com

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

#251

Post by coderintherye »

opportune wrote: post #210
adenozine wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily, there will be plenty of remote firms to scoop up all the engineers Google is about to hemorrhage. What a miserable work culture it must be for them to even have the nerve to declare this. Downvote away, I’ll be hiring some of them! ;-)

But Google let most people who asked to go remote, go remote. And said several times that if you haven’t asked to go remote yet, they’ll give you a 30 day notifications before you need to go back I hate threads like these because people will circle around generic talking points while missing all the nuance and context behind this actual decision, like allowing almost any SWE to go remote that asks, giving a heads up,…

>like allowing almost any SWE to go remote that asks

Do you have the policy document or data to back that up? Asking because I am friends with a Google engineer who asked to go remote and was denied (even though nothing about their role requires them to be in-person).

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

#252

Post by tfsh »

skybrian wrote: post #201

I've worked at a startup where everyone being there was essential in how we worked. (We were all pair programming.) It was great. It beats code reviews any day. I learned a lot. But when I was at Google, we would schedule VC meetings with people in a different part of campus just to avoid the walk. Also, I worked on teams that had people worked out in many offices, mostly not Mountain View. I was surrounded by Google…

I believe there are teams which will be primarily remote

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

#253

Post by slg »

opportune wrote: post #210
adenozine wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily, there will be plenty of remote firms to scoop up all the engineers Google is about to hemorrhage. What a miserable work culture it must be for them to even have the nerve to declare this. Downvote away, I’ll be hiring some of them! ;-)

But Google let most people who asked to go remote, go remote. And said several times that if you haven’t asked to go remote yet, they’ll give you a 30 day notifications before you need to go back I hate threads like these because people will circle around generic talking points while missing all the nuance and context behind this actual decision, like allowing almost any SWE to go remote that asks, giving a heads up,…

There is not a whole lot of nuance to the word "mandate". If Google was truly this amenable to requests to go remote, why "mandate" employees back to the office rather than make it optional? Sure, welcome people back who want to be in the office, but don't require people to be there.

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

#256

Post by manuelabeledo »

gitowiec wrote: post #74

That's good to be back in the office. For me it's only a week to start feeling bad. Loneliness, the same walls I live with family, no colleagues around to talk to. That's not for me. Sometimes I prefer to work from home, because I need to run some errands, from home I have better control. Everybody should have an option, or possibility to work from home some days in a week. But nothing replace morning coffee in the k…

> But nothing replace morning coffee in the kitchen with colleagues!

Isn’t this what “friends” are for?

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

#257

Post by danans »

paxys wrote: post #30

I see two reasons to go back to the office: 1. You need a physical space to work from. 2. Your entire team is at the office as well and you can collaborate with them face to face. I imagine 1 is not a concern for most people who have adapted to the situation over the last two years. And 2 requires that most of your team is local and agrees to come in as well, which I can't see being too likely. For me personally goin…

> I imagine 1 is not a concern for most people who have adapted to the situation over the last two years

I doubt most people have completely adapted to this. Speaking for myself, I only have one spare room that is a dedicated office (and it's also our guest room), and my spouse and I have to switch off when we need it for work. Most people don't have a spare unused room or two for remote work.

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

#258

Post by paulryanrogers »

randomsilence wrote: post #216
asd88 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Which will lead to the remote workers changing companies. If there is no substantial advantage, those companies will become second class companies.

That's one way to evaluate things. Another way is to consider diversity in working methods a goal in and of itself, even if it doesn't further capitalist positive outcomes.

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

#259

Post by jbigelow76 »

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…

Note: just an typical enterprise dev take, not in the Bay Area/part of the FAAMNG environment

A big part of the equation (for some) will be what kind of office they are being asked to return to? At the office my company used to have before it was acquired in 2019 everyone had a cube, not big by any means and not with full walls, but enough space to have a few pics of family, maybe a plant, personal nick-nacks, whatever, a sense of some sort of boundary to it. I could have easily been persuaded to return to that environment 3 days a week, because I did enjoy being around my peers. The acquiring company however, had plans underway to bring us into long elbow-to-elbow tables before work from home happened in March 2020. What would you call a food trough to work at instead of eat at, a "productivity trough"? I am open to tolerating that one day a week for cross team meetings (some have started trickling in already), anymore than that and I am out.

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

#260

Post by blinded »

voisin wrote: post #123

My problem with remote work is that it exacerbates a divide between blue and white collar workers that breeds further resentment, which has already led to all sorts of social ills. I’m not sure the individual benefits outweigh the collective rage.

yes pull the performers down a level that will help, not.
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