Live data from Hacker News

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

reuters.com

341–350 of 1001 posts

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

#341
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.

If anything, the pandemic has highlighted our dependence on blue collar workers, even if you snidely leave them out of the definition of “performers”.

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

#342
post #110

I work for a large tech company based on the east coast. My partner works for another large tech company. We are both mid-level managers at companies that seem to be taking a pretty dramatically different approach. My company: - Started with a strong in-office culture - Communicated to managers that all employees now have a choice between being fully remote, hybrid, or in-office; there’s never a mandate to be in pers…

Is the second one wayfair? It echoes what all my friends there are saying.

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

#343
post #28
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.

This is a good point. Theranos equity made huge gains for a while so clearly they must have been ultra productive too?

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

#345
post #111

I have been fully remote my entire career (several decades), in fact in 30+ years have never been on site anywhere for more than 2 weeks total. Wouldn't have it any other way. But as a counter-point, seeing a whole bunch of people who were never remote before, how little work they are actually doing, it is no surprise to me that a lot of employers are going to start forcing - to the extent possible - employees back i…

> But as a counter-point, seeing a whole bunch of people who were never remote before, how little work they are actually doing, it is no surprise to me that a lot of employers are going to start forcing - to the extent possible - employees back into the office My suspicion is those people probably don't do anything while at the office either but they are good at making themselves very visible and appearing to be prod…

Back when I worked in an office, everyone knew who the slackers were.

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

#346
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…

"semi"

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

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think Google having a company-wide policy on this is nuts. Teams vary a lot. They should probably be left to make their own decisions. This seems rational until you are actually responsible for managing a large organization. First off, the article itself states that Google is giving a lot of flexibility ("Employees not prepared to return April 4 also can seek a remote-work extension, Google said. Since last June,…

Yes, there is a great deal of flexibility and patience. I worked from home a couple days a week. In the old days, they drew the line at going full-remote. When the Atlanta office closed, everyone there had to either move somewhere else or, eventually, leave. I guess that's changed.

Why did that office originally close? And haven’t they opened a new, larger one since then?

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

#349

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.

You can just fire people. If I had a report that was not meeting expectations I sure as hell wouldn't make "deny their remote work application, hope they are dissatisfied with the office, and wait for them to quit" be my plan.

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

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What is an RIF?

Reduction In Force
Post reply on HN