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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

#401

Post by DataJunkie »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #116

We've just done a survey at work to talk about about attitudes to returning to work. The results were basically that 95% of people are happy with work from home but want more social gatherings. Most people would be happy with visiting the office once every two weeks. I expected a small fraction to be extremely pro return to office but actually these didn't appear at all in our survey. What we did have is a couple of…

Top down entirely. It's based entirely on propaganda that Google has the best perks and that serendipitous hallway conversations lead to innovation. Zero evidence that that is the case. And other companies have the same, if not better, perks.

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

#402

Post by LightG »

civilized wrote: post #291
tick_tock_tick wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Well, in my circumstances, headphones are on during focused work because I don't want to listen to small talk or a sales phone call or ... etc

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

#403

Post by librish »

manuelabeledo wrote: post #232
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 think that an environment where someone can tap me on the shoulder when they need help leads to overall higher productivity, even if individual productivity suffers temporarily. Seriously, what’s the difference between this and instant messaging? I would argue that the ability to defer interruptions is enough to rely on IM, instead of physical interaction.

At all the companies I've been at it's be kosher to ignore IMs for several hours if you're working on something.

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

#404

Post by samstave »

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…

>>tap me on the shoulder when they need help leads to overall higher productivity, even if individual productivity suffers temporarily

--

Bless your heart.

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

#405

Post by throwawaylinux »

Aren't we still recording among the highest rates of covid deaths since the start of the pandemic, and it's still coming and going in waves? Hospital systems are still run on the brink of overload as they usually are. What's changed?

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

#406

Post by DataJunkie »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #3

Do Googlers mind working in the office much? They get plenty of free meals/snacks/beverages, great equipment, and great salary allowing them to live close to the office and pay for childcare if needed. I can't see the rest of the industry moving in the direction of returning to the office, because they don't have these things.

Great equipment? I had to wait several months to get a modern computer since my previous 3 year old computer broke. I was stuck on a Chromebook that couldn't even process email. So, no, equipment ain't "great." And I am so sick of hearing "but the food!" Food doesn't mean squat to me over flexibility.

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

#407

Post by [deleted] »

cebert wrote: post #360
2spicy4me wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking for myself, I need the structure and am currently getting very little done. A lot of us aren’t trying to scam the remote work system, we’re just hanging on by our fingernails until the office opens back up.

How does going back to the office help with that?

[deleted]

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

#408

Post by bastardoperator »

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.
Looking at record high stock prices, I think we've proved that offices are completely unnecessary. What you're describing sounds like a low performance interrupt driven nightmare.

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

#409

Post by buzzert »

erosenbe0 wrote: post #282
r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK a lot of people during the pandemic suddenly found themselves having to look after their children full time because the schools were closed and there was no childcare, while also having to work, possibly coming down with Covid, and during the first lockdown at least having to queue for hours every time they went to the supermarket. Even when the lockdowns we're relaxes my colleagues with kids would frequent…

There are thousands of cases in America where the child care provider (grandparent) died of COVID.

That's a very dishonest distortion of statistics.

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

#410

Post by devoutsalsa »

jmacd wrote: post #358

I once flew in to the Bay Area from Europe for several meetings, but the most important one was with a team at Google. We were trying to finalize a deal and they really needed to be on board. I arrived, checked in and was shown to a meeting room. A few minutes after the meeting was supposed to start the receptionist came scurrying in and connected me to the meeting via that cube looking meeting machine they had in ev…

I got a job that was onsite. On the first day I learned no one in my team worked in the same office.
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