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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

#291

Post by civilized »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #276
civilized wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you literally want to be tapped on the shoulder? Because this seems to be an extremely common figure of speech, but literally, I would not enjoy that.

I mean people normally wave in your line of sight then actually touch you but yes.... It's a super quick way to resolve an issue and get everyone back on track. Especially as I've gotten more and more senior over my career and a lot of your work output is making sure the rest of the team can function effectively. Only when I was really junior did heads down code all day happen.

I just don't understand why it's physical rather than verbal. You have to talk to solve the problem anyways right? Isn't that the point of being colocated?

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

#292

Post by eertami »

khazhoux wrote: post #241
sumedh wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have had coworkers literally disappear for days at a time, miss meetings for weeks at a time, constantly miss deadlines etc As a manager why cant you call out this behaviour when you see people slacking off?

I don't know about disappearing for days and weeks, but as a manager I can say that in practice, performance problems are often subtle and hard to detect. I don't subscribe to the idea that you have to be at your desk to get work done, and I do my own best work usually hiding away somewhere quiet. However , with the middle- to low-performers, I admit it's disquieting to suspect that some people are working only an ho…

Unless their performance becomes unacceptable, I don't see the problem that someone works only an hour per day.

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

#293

Post by UncleMeat »

tfsh wrote: post #252
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

Individuals as well. My team is going to mixed-remote. Every single application for full time remote work in my org of hundreds was approved.

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

#294

Post by me_me_mu_mu »

My opinion is that for a couple of years companies were able to coast on the retained employee knowledge while remote.

However as people leave the company or new people join, it is pretty difficult to ramp people up to be as effective as their replacements. I don’t work at Google so maybe everyone who works there is a genius, but I’ve noticed this at my work where it takes quite a long time for people to be 100% effective and it’s mostly because people have meetings and other obligations that make it challenging to bring ppl up to speed.

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

#295

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#296

Post by nhumrich »

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…

Yes! You are hinting at something fairly important which is, the whole != sum(parts). Most of these studies show individual productivity is higher when remote. That doesn't mean overall productivity is. Individual productivity only matters in the big picture, if everyone is 100% aligned and focused. Which, will never happen.

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

#297

Post by geodel »

berg117 wrote: post #261
munificent wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Agreed. We've proven that big tech companies can continue to be productive for up to two years going remote. I suspect that that doesn't generalize very well to being completely remote over the long term. It works well when you already have a bunch of personal relationships between teammates that were es…

There's a 95% chance that this is a disguised RIF. People they want to keep will be able to continue WFH if they want. People who are on the margins or destined for the Performance Improvement Camps will have to come in and warm seats if they want to eke out a year or two more of existence.

This is quite sensible comment. I am sure not much liked here.

At my work at very anti-remote employer, there are so many people who have obtained permanent remote. So I wouldn't be surprised people who Google thinks valuable would get individual arrangements and other who just themselves think they are valuable are in for rude surprise.

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

#298

Post by Asooka »

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…

For me, I'm just not comfortable sitting in an office. It's cold, the air is dry, the windows are tinted a horrible deep blue and don't let in any natural light. Everybody else is fine with these conditions, but I'm not. There is just no way to have the exact same conditions fit everyone, which is one of the problems with offices - everyone stuck together in the same room with little to no power over their surroundings.

Additionally, I can't push myself to be productive for 8 hours straight. My productivity has gone way up now that I can have a good long break in the middle of the day. You can't really go and have a 3 hour break in the office and even if you did, what would you do? - at most you can sit in the cold kitchenette and stare at the wall, at which point I'm literally wasting my life.

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

#299

Post by UncleMeat »

Johnny555 wrote: post #59
ASinclair wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's based on where you work. Though you can work remote from the same city as your current office and have no pay difference.

Can you go remote within commute distance of the office and keep your salary? What's the limit? Living in Pleasanton is cheaper than living in Mountain View, but still commutable. Living in Tracy is cheaper still and people still commute to the Bay Area from there. Living in Fresno or Sacramento is even cheaper and farther but still some people will do that commute daily.

> Can you go remote within commute distance of the office and keep your salary?

Yes. I know somebody working remotely about 10m driving from the office.

To keep your salary you'd need to stay in the SF bay area, which is defined according to country lines.

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

#300

Post by me_me_mu_mu »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #256
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?

Not in the morning during work lol
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