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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

#431

Post by buzzert »

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…

You should've budgeted some time to see the sights on the weekend, at least! My company is usually fine with letting me stay somewhere over a weekend or two on business trips.

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

#432

Post by ignu »

I'd prefer to work an environment where I can't get interrupted synchronously by someone wanting their problem resolved that moment.

Also, one thing with those in person interactions is you have no artifact of the interaction. Slack or tickets are great for documenting how decisions are made.

But ultimately, I have no desire to waste an extra 5 to 10 hours of my life just driving back and forth to sit at a different computer.

I do think it's great to meet your coworkers so they're more than faces in Zoom, but I am absolutely never going back to rotting away in a car and office most of my waking week.

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

#433

Post by 2spicy4me »

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?

It’s tough to introspect on exactly why, but I was certainly more productive and less fucked in the head when I was going into the office every day.

Maybe it was general mental health, partly. I live alone, so getting out of the house daily and seeing other people is good for me. I had office friends who it’s hard to keep in touch with.

Structure was another part. I had to get dressed and leave the house at a certain hour, then I had to get my stuff done by 5, when I came back home.

And general peer pressure. I had an open office desk, and I hated that, but in hindsight, it did help me stay on task. Which is kind of hilarious, because the open office floor plan was so distracting that I was terribly inefficient at my desk, so I hid away in corners most of the time to get real work done.

There were tons of negatives to being in the office (god I hate the open office floor plans), but for whatever reasons, I was more productive before the pandemic than I have been during.

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

#435

Post by redisman »

throwawaylinux wrote: post #405

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?

Cases have plummeted?

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

#436

Post by PragmaticPulp »

formerly_proven wrote: post #20
foogazi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean ?

"Despite shipping more than ever and having higher velocity than ever before remote work clearly does not work hence you must return to the office"

> "Despite shipping more than ever and having higher velocity than ever before

I've been a member of several manager-centric forums since before COVID.

This was definitely not the case for most teams. The sudden switch to remote was not a productivity or even a morale boost for most.

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

#437

Post by mtoddsmith »

enw wrote: post #202

I hate on-site because I'm unable to pee next to others. It's embarrassing, so I avoid office bathrooms. Surely I'm not the only one? Guys don't talk about this.

It’s called Paruresis or Pee Shy which I learned from Reddit. There’s plenty of talk if you know what to search for. It happens to my kids sometimes so I’ve had to coach them through it.

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

#438

Post by Dylan16807 »

ghaff wrote: post #334
darrylb42 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our office is 100% hoteling now no fixed seats. No personal stuff unless you want to carry it in everyday you go in. Been a few months since I went in.

That's one of the issues with the idea of flexibility/choice/etc. If most people have different preferences, your's are not necessarily really an option.

I don't see how cutting down on space too much is an issue with the idea of flexibility/choice? If anything they're reducing choices.

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

#439

Post by PragmaticPulp »

brutus1213 wrote: post #189
paxys wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both engineers and managers at big tech companies can get by working 2 hours a day. And remote vs on-site doesn't affect that. This has been true since well before WFH. As for the location-based pay part, I bet none of the people who were furious about getting "adjusted" after moving out of the Bay Area ever complained about their colleagues in Bangalore working the same amount as them and making 1/5 as much.

I get a bit annoyed hearing about the 2 hour a day folks. They are probably forcing their peers or managers to take on more work than is their fair share. I'm in management now .. as an engineer, I most certainly used to work over 8 hours a day (probably 12 hours, counting all the time I spent studying to keep up). Now, in management, the hours have actually gone up .. I now have to worry about things my team is doin…

> I get a bit annoyed hearing about the 2 hour a day folks. They are probably forcing their peers or managers to take on more work than is their fair share.

It's either this, or they have some unrealistically narrow view of what constitutes work.

I've worked with engineers who were concerned they only "worked" 4 hours per day because they only counted time spent writing code in the code editor. Had to remind a lot of people that communication, meetings, and other job-related activities are also work.

But there are also a lot of people who do the 2 hour per day thing by shifting as much work as possible to other people. They might do bursts of intense work when they know other people are watching, but it's back to the minimum as soon as they're not being closely observed any more.

The other half of that equation is to change jobs frequently. It can take a year or longer for some managers or companies to catch on to employees who aren't really doing much work, at which point the person can easily move on to the next job and start the process again.

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

#440

Post by asdff »

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 get paired programming is cool, but honestly you can do it perfectly on zoom thanks to screen sharing with multiple participants. Its easier to have their screen on your screen right next to your screen thats on their screen than to huddle together clumsily with two laptops. Sometimes I'll have "office hours" on zoom, where I will just sit in my zoom room and work on my stuff and if people want to hop in and 'tap me on the shoulder' so to speak they can do it, or I could go and hop to someone elses or send a message and see if they are free.
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