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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

#531

Post by nick__m »

darrylb42 wrote: post #277
jbigelow76 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note: just an typical enterprise dev take, not in the Bay Area/part of the FAAMNG environment A big part of the equation (for some) will be what kind of office they are being asked to return to? At the office my company used to have before it was acquired in 2019 everyone had a cube, not big by any means and not with full walls, but enough space to have a few pics of family, maybe a plant, personal nick-nacks, whatev…

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.

At work, it's hybrid, (remote up to 3 days/weeks) and each teams (we are 15 in my team) must vote on a common on-prem day and I get to keep my private office full of legos!

But this arrangement is only available to peoples who don't interact with the students, so it create some resentment. The workers who don't have that privilege have started to call us: la gagne de laptops, a derisive way to says the laptops class/cast.

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

#532

Post by idontwantthis »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #443
ignu wrote: post #432

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…

> I'd prefer to work an environment where I can't get interrupted synchronously by someone wanting their problem resolved that moment. FWIW, I found synchronous interruptions to be more of a problem when remote. Too many people used Slack messages or video calls for everything because it was only a click away, as opposed to having to get up and walk over to someone’s desk > Also, one thing with those in person intera…

I don't understand why people get so upset about slack messages. Do you get berated by your boss if you don't reply immediately?

At my company, we send messages when we need help, but the expectation is that the reply comes at the convenience of the person being asked.

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

#533

Post by black_13 »

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#534

Post by inlined »

carom wrote: post #393
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…

Lonely is an incredibly accurate way to describe working at Google. Everyone says the office perks are there to trick you to stay, but our work area was quieter than a library and no one hung around. If people were talking they'd legit catch themselves and be like, we should grab a conference room. Incredibly polite but also an uncomfortably quiet environment. I think a lot of people just wanted to put in their hours…

I made more enduring friendships in each of my 3yr tenures at Facebook and Microsoft than I did at 8yrs of google

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

#535

Post by enos_feedler »

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…

Not crashing and burning has a lot to do with development momentum from before the pandemic. It will take all of 22 and ‘23 to be able to compare the output of pre pandemic versions of big tech. This is especially true for hardware companies and products that have annual release cadence.

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

#536

Post by vanilla_nut »

MattGaiser wrote: post #460
devoutsalsa wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

My old company is this way. You can work from any of several offices, but work from the office you must. So even when I went in, I never dealt with team members.

Couldn't you just... work from home, and pretend to be at an office? Unlikely that anyone would ever notice...

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

#537

Post by hunter-gatherer »

idontwantthis wrote: post #532
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd prefer to work an environment where I can't get interrupted synchronously by someone wanting their problem resolved that moment. FWIW, I found synchronous interruptions to be more of a problem when remote. Too many people used Slack messages or video calls for everything because it was only a click away, as opposed to having to get up and walk over to someone’s desk > Also, one thing with those in person intera…

I don't understand why people get so upset about slack messages. Do you get berated by your boss if you don't reply immediately? At my company, we send messages when we need help, but the expectation is that the reply comes at the convenience of the person being asked.

> I don't understand why people get so upset about slack messages. Do you get berated by your boss if you don't reply immediately?

Sort of, yeah.

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

#538

Post by VikingCoder »

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 would make the claim:

"Allowing remote work has been proven to be better."

Because it increases the supply of candidates. I also have a bias to believing it increases Diversity and Inclusion, which I think are also good things.

I get that I'm leaving as an exercise for the reader "how to implement hybrid teams" and "how to fairly evaluate employees who are remote and not."

I've spent roughly a thousand hours of time with my family since quarantine began, that I otherwise would have spent commuting to work. I can hardly tell you how valuable that is.

Let me just glance real quick at how profitable my company has been over the last two years... oh, hmm, yeah, it seems like it can take the theoretic productivity hit from being forced to use IM to solve problems.

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

#540

Post by fennecfoxen »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #447
makeitdouble wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This seems rational until you are actually responsible for managing a large organization. This reads like an argument against single management for large organizations. If you need to fit thousands of square pegs into holes, perhaps it's not the best approach in the first place.

Central vs distributed government. Which do you think works better?

Federalism!
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