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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

#361

Post by 30minAdayHN »

julianlam wrote: post #317
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…

> Agreed. We've proven that big tech companies can continue to be productive for up to two years going remote. This sentence amuses me a bit. Does that also mean that American Democracy has only been proven to work for up to 245 years? :-)

I think so. Systems like remote work, American Democracy are not simple enough to have a scientific proof to provide guarantees. So many factors that might not otherwise have affected the outcomes could affect an outcome in future. So the only fair statements are that remote work has been proven to work for 2 years and american democracy for 200ish years :-) This is quite fascinating

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

#362

Post by electriclizard »

mzvkxlcvd wrote: post #191
908B64B197 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I’ve been told it’s been pretty easy for some to negotiate no salary adjustment when going remote. It’s against HR “policy” but I know deals happened when someone was deemed a crucial contributor.

im planning on moving out of state in a few months from high cost area. what i've been told is that my salary wont change but I will be at "top of band" in the new area.

Complete manipulative nonsense if they ever use "top of the band" as reason to change their relationship with you imo. A Ferrari doesn't stop being Ferrari just because it's parked amongst Priuses. If you're worth paying $x for $y, you're worth paying $x for $y minus the reduction in taxes they'll pay; your moving to an area with less taxes is them getting you on sale.

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

#363

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

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

Many things at a big company like Google require working with people in different timezones. I would say more often than not, if requires working with someone in a building far enough away that you have to do a video conference anyway.

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

#364

Post by LAC-Tech »

enw wrote: post #323
xanaxagoras wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go in the stall?

Feels embarrassing to always go in the stall when I obviously only need to pee.

I mean I can only speak for myself, but I don't look at another man going into a bathroom and stall and think "wait a minute.... is he NOT taking a shit?" then start getting my stopwatch out and cross-referencing that with studies of average defecation times.

Surely no one really cares.

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

#367

Post by weq »

Asooka wrote: post #298
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 surroundin…

The only people really comfortable in offices are the ones who are in it for the politics. Ditto everything you have said here including the taking a break. I learnt to code in bedroom 20yrs ago, and now im an architect at a global company working fully remote. our company has fully committed with Work Life Balance and now that means fully flexible - if u want to be an office, be in it, if u want to WFH, WFH. We are remote first, so there is always a video call for any meeting.

I actually think offices/the rat is a large part of our sickness we have as humanity. People are "forced" todo what they dont want, and therefor, they are less empathetic to others plights. If "i have to, they should". "i need to goto work, slug it out, they should do. they shouldnt leech of the state. they shouldnt take our jobs. they shouldnt.". It feels like the root cause of so much conflict.

Atleast thats how it played out in my immigrant family. They came to this country, dedicated there lives to work, made money, and died before they could appreciate it. Ive now had an education, and realised that their way of life, back on an island, is more satisfying for the soul. So im trying to bring both of those concepts together and live the dream they had for me. Instead of how their parents slugged it out 12hrs a day, and never spent quality time with them... Which resulted in little growth of grow social/parental skills, talked to everyone like they were a client, and were easily manipulated by conservative media because they never had any time to understand world events for themselves.

No longer does remote mean isolation. I have better relationships with my neighbours and community. I have internet access at the level of any city folk. I have less worries, i can take breaks in my workday that are meaningful for me, and therefor i give more of myself to my job. Thats how being FLEXIBLE to your employees brings about efficencies. Much more complex then a simple commute.

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

#368

Post by lolpython »

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'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.

I do pair programming very frequently with my coworkers remotely. We share a VNC connection to a Linux host. It works great.

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

#369

Post by davidw »

csa wrote: post #153
rr808 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to strangle my wife and kids if I have to stay in my apartment with them another two years.

Strongly suggest a co-working space nearby if that’s the situation at home. It would suck to have to pay for something that other folks don’t have to pay for, but if that’s the reality you find yourself in… Obviously upgrading to a place with a dedicated office would probably be comparable, but that makes some assumptions on my part that might not be accurate or reasonable.

A lot of companies will pay for stuff like a coworking space. It's a legit business expense. I specifically made sure to ask about that before I started at my current gig.

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

#370

Post by Thrymr »

yupper32 wrote: post #327
dsl wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is vastly different in the bay area where public transit is a horrible mess and the freeways are all at 300% capacity. A friend who is a Googler is looking at a 30 minute commute to a GBus stop for a 90 minute ride each way. Going to the office is cutting productivity basically in half.

Honestly that's their issue that can be fixed. There's no reason someone with a Google salary needs to be 2 hours commute from the office.

Unless of course they have family/spouse/SO who also need to be somewhere else.
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