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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

#571

Post by nsonha »

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 doubt that this is something everyone has to follow. More likely they'll just keep the option for everyone to apply for approval and then they'll negotiate that with the employees they think don't have leverage. People who have options would quit if forced to be back in office, you can boomerang at Google so it's not like they risk much.

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

#572

Post by heavyset_go »

passivate wrote: post #429
Forgeties79 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like most work related policies, I think this falls squarely under “it depends.” I’m an in-house video producer for a tech start up. I absolutely do not need to be in the office most days, let alone every day.

But is a job just an exchange of labor for payment? I view it as so much more. Even if we look at it from a job perspective, its also an opportunity to build personal connections between team members; "I owe you one" - goes a long way. Yes you can absolutely build these personal connections online, and it may be easier for introverted people, but I would say for most people a handshake or a smile passing down the hal…

Many people have family and friends they'd much rather be around than the people they're forced to be around at work, even if those people are nice and their friends, so they don't need their job to substitute that socialization for them.

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

#573

Post by chaps »

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.

Yes. When the pandemic started this, a boss berated someone in the main channel for not responding within 5 minutes.

Incidentally he accidentally posted porn in the slack.. and never made a deal out of it from then on.

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

#574

Post by [deleted] »

hunter-gatherer wrote: post #537
idontwantthis wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#575

Post by compilerone »

asdff wrote: post #440
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 m…

In my experience I find pair programming with collaborative tools like VSCode's "Liveshare" [], paired with audio-only call (Slack huddle, Google meet, what have you), far superior than in person pair programming.

[] https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/services/live-share/

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

#576

Post by crummy »

asdff wrote: post #446
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…

Every single thread I see on this has this exact same comment. It's like a bot wrote it. Is it that hard to imagine that an onboarding experience remotely can actually be done well, or that you could actually make friends with people existing solely on zoom? I think people are making that assumption, just because it feels right or maybe because their own org is just throwing juniors by the wayside and hoping covid wi…

Has anyone had a great onboarding experience remotely? How did it go?

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

#577

Post by Teknoman117 »

morgante wrote: post #547
scottlamb wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think a small percentage of people are self-motivated, and more productively at home, but watching this all play out for the last 2 years makes me realize that an awful lot of people are going to try to get away with absolutely anything they can - including working as little as possible - when allowed to be on their own. I have had coworkers literally disappear for days at a time, miss meetings for weeks at a tim…

You're right that there are many reasons people might seem to be underperforming in remote work, but unfortunately it doesn't really improve the situation for managers or coworkers. If many employees are spending their time in childcare instead of their job, it increases the burden on other employees who have to work extra hard to pick up the slack. It's a miserable situation, and because the reason for slacking is a…

> and because the reason for slacking is a protected one there's virtually nothing others can do about it.

There's a reason it's protected. You can't just expect business as usual when the entire support chain of society falls over. Everyone and everything has to adapt - people, businesses, etc.

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

#578

Post by Hardik_Shah »

Google has joined a growing number of technology and financial firms in requiring employees to return to work. While some large employers have made voluntary work-from-home policies permanent, others, such as Google, believe that it is best to prioritise in-person interactions among colleagues.

I personally believe working from office brings out more productivity than working from home.

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

#579

Post by compilerone »

passivate wrote: post #429
Forgeties79 wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like most work related policies, I think this falls squarely under “it depends.” I’m an in-house video producer for a tech start up. I absolutely do not need to be in the office most days, let alone every day.

But is a job just an exchange of labor for payment? I view it as so much more. Even if we look at it from a job perspective, its also an opportunity to build personal connections between team members; "I owe you one" - goes a long way. Yes you can absolutely build these personal connections online, and it may be easier for introverted people, but I would say for most people a handshake or a smile passing down the hal…

I totally get the idea, but when a company can easily fire you for no good reason it's hard to develop any real attachment to a job so that it is something beyond just an exchange of labor for payment.

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

#580

Post by namecheap435 »

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…

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