I'd like to see mankind drop everything it's doing and focus on making portal guns a reality. Once we have the ability to step from our home office into our work office (and back again as many times as we want throughout the day) then we can all happily continue working together on other stuff.
Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
921–930 of 1001 posts
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#922Earlier quoted context omitted.
To extend this, more useable time with family. For many people with younger children (and therefore early evening bedtimes), having or not having a commute is not a difference of an hour or two of your day - it's the difference between spending time with your family during the week versus not at all. I've heard this from many friends (and some family) across different industries - hardly any have wanted to stick thei…
This is of course true. OTOH, WFH people living alone can go many days without any human interaction. There is no arrangement that is "best" for everyone.
I think it's important to not confuse WFH life with WFH life during a global pandemic.
Many people WFH and their kids have been stuck at home, they dont feel safe popping to the coffee shop for a few hours of work, and they dont feel safe going to social events.
Once people feel fully safe doing those things and the kids are back in school in person WFH life will elevate for so many.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#923I 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…
In my experience productivity is up and people get their work done. What I do see is a lot of extrovert getting depressed because they no longer have access to the smorgasbord of interactions at the office. Certain managers also seem worried by this move to remote, since it has become harder for them to "play the game" of office politics.
My own opinion is let the people decide what to do. Once a week, everyday, once a month, only when needed... Let people and teams decide.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#924Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, some people hate onboarding on a new company as a remote person and so on and so on. My team has been able to hire people from all across the country, gaining access to talent that we normally would not have been able to reach. Because my entire company has gone fully remote, if someone on the team has to take a trip overseas, they can choose to…
As a opposite view: Some team members output has severely dropped. I've seen people playing video games during work hours for example. Also work and free time has mixed to a point where people just randomly take hour or two to go skiing or for a walk and routinely just quit at the normal time. Commuting is different in different places. For me it is 15 minute drive to the office from a neighboring smaller city where…
I think the overall theme here shouldn't be "I'm sure we will lose ppl and that's fine".
Instead you should be an advocate for mixed teams. Why can't your remote coworker just zoom into the meeting with you onsite?
We can all be accommodating to each other.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#925Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I want to be able to quickly resolve any issues in person, not over voice call or slack.. Isn't this the main problem? I hate everyone who comes barging in and wants to "resolve issues" quickly. Not saying I love remote work, but I cannot stand working a place where people are "allowed" to disturb me. I don't even log into Slack/Teams/Skype or any of that nonsense; I don't even want to be disturbed in my virtual wo…
That's great, but I don't want to work with you, because something you're working on or something you're responsible for is blocking me and I have no way of making progress.
>That's great, but I don't want to work with you, because something you're working on or something you're responsible for is blocking me and I have no way of making progress.
I suggest you try to figure it out for yourself first. I can't count the number if times I sent a message, "hey, bla bla," then 5 minutes later I return "never mind." If you can't figure it out, have some respect for the other person's work and time and send an email or message. They will most likely get back to you by the end of the day if not sooner.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#926I 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 certainly like being able to roll out of bed and put on a coffee 10 minutes before starting work, but if I'm being honest with myself, the idea of receiving all my regular human interaction through a badly made Electron app from Microsoft for the rest of my life is just not a good idea in the long run. And maybe I'm just crazy but it seems like software even from the big companies has gotten worse through the pande…
>idea of receiving all my regular human interaction through a badly made Electron app from Microsoft for the rest of my life is just not a good idea in the long run.
Have you considered bars?
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#927Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a opposite view: Some team members output has severely dropped. I've seen people playing video games during work hours for example. Also work and free time has mixed to a point where people just randomly take hour or two to go skiing or for a walk and routinely just quit at the normal time. Commuting is different in different places. For me it is 15 minute drive to the office from a neighboring smaller city where…
I think the overall theme here shouldn't be "I'm sure we will lose ppl and that's fine". Instead you should be an advocate for mixed teams. Why can't your remote coworker just zoom into the meeting with you onsite? We can all be accommodating to each other.
Tooling issue is one thing. Choice of VoIP is MS Teams since it comes free with the IT package and Teams is complete shit to use.
Second it the actual logistics. It was always pain to accommedate the one or two remotees by having some kind of conference phone-thing. Over all it is just way more convenient and nicer to talk face to face. In my opinion even all online meeting is better than hybrid one.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#928Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I don’t if it’s for everyone, but i love it. No commute, healthier food, access to a bed for a quick nap, and a nice office. 10/10 would do again.
Quick naps are hugely underrated. 20 minutes of sleep in the afternoon and afterwards I could do my job while juggling knives (figuratively). A manager I worked with once pre-pandemic had his idea of "business hammocks" for the office repeatedly shot down. He was a genius though.
>his idea of "business hammocks" for the office repeatedly shot down. He was a genius though.
Sounds like nap pods lol
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#929Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a opposite view: Some team members output has severely dropped. I've seen people playing video games during work hours for example. Also work and free time has mixed to a point where people just randomly take hour or two to go skiing or for a walk and routinely just quit at the normal time. Commuting is different in different places. For me it is 15 minute drive to the office from a neighboring smaller city where…
> Yes, they are now open, but there is also like a meter of snow outside Wouldn’t that snow be just as annoying to deal with for getting to work?
Kind a different to go out everyday and then hitting gym on the way to or from the office than sitting at home whole winter while snow piles on top of my car and freezes solid and then finally getting a permission to go to the gym.
And waking up early just to walk to the gym and back feels weird.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#930Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I will counter is that remote is almost certainly better for the environment Being forced to live in expensive cities … and suffer the misery of public transport, yeah no thanks. In your attempt to throw everything against a wall to see what sticks you’ve contradicted yourself. Living in dense cities and taking public transportation is good for the environment. You want to work from home—own that instead of tryi…
>Living in dense cities and taking public transportation is good for the environment. Citation?
Comparing one group of people that live in a dense area, and can take a bus to/from work and other places, versus another group of people that each drive a separate car over a much longer distance to/from work and other places. Not to mention the efficiency of heating one large building over lots of small buildings and things like that. I don't think this is much of a contested thing.