581–590 of 1001 posts
I personally believe working from office brings more productivity than working from home.
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've attended the weddings of multiple friends from my first job. I'm still in touch with 4-5 people from my second job. I haven't spoken to anyone from my team at Google since the day I left. I had good, cordial relationships with all of them, but it was also incredibly impersonal. I don't even recall learning anything about anyone's spouse, for instance.
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…
It's way more than just interruptions, travel, etc. I recently found /r/overemployed [1] on VC Twitter, and a lot of folks are using this setup to work two (or more) jobs. They know that they'll only need to dedicate 4 hours a day to any given job and as long as they can schedule non-overlapping meetings, they can get away with it. It's got me thinking though - this might be an opportunity for startups to knowingly h…
* Microsoft
* Amazon
* Netflix? (Why not META?)
* Apple
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Why did you hate it? An excuse to take a walk in Bay Area weather in the middle of the day doesn't seem that bad to me.
I hated it because it took 5-10 minutes. I’d rather use that time working, or meditating, or doing anything else of my choice than having to walk. It’s also pretty messed up when it rains, or is cold, or I have a disability or a foot in a cast. Etc etc. Having to do things not essential to a purpose is better to make them optional. If I like working, I can walk around while on the remote meeting
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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.
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> 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.
This assumes some messages are urgent and some are not, and that you can't know which is which until you open the chat and thus mark it as read.
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 more productivity than working from home.
It's the same at Google, you can apply to be fully remote.
I have been fully remote my entire career (several decades), in fact in 30+ years have never been on site anywhere for more than 2 weeks total. Wouldn't have it any other way. But as a counter-point, seeing a whole bunch of people who were never remote before, how little work they are actually doing, it is no surprise to me that a lot of employers are going to start forcing - to the extent possible - employees back i…
4/04 - worker not found
Seriously, it's not going to be a good day for management.