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Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

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Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#101

Post by donkers »

ryandrake wrote: post #86
glzone1 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of business don't want to bother performance managing that closely. Plenty just worked off of trust. * You hire someone, and then figure out someone else is doing the work (usually because they are making stupid mistakes, and the person you hired can't be that dumb) * Your staff work odd hours that make coordinating hard (side gigs / hussle's etc). * I think the rumored record of multiple full time jobs someone…

> * I think the rumored record of multiple full time jobs someone was working was 5+. > * We interviewed someone who was upfront they would be working for us while working for her full time day job remotely. I'm not sure how this is justified as a problem. CEO of multiple companies: A-OK SVP serving on multiple companies' boards of directors: A-OK Salaried office worker working for multiple companies remotely: Fraud…

I wouldn't call it fraud, but it is probably violating the terms of the employment contract. I know it is for my company (I bet people still do it anyway)

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#102

Post by bathtub365 »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #83
angmarsbane wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RTO for sales folks doesn't make sense to me either. Typically you want your sales folks on the road not in your office. I think sales is a good candidate for fully remote.

You 100% want your sales folks at customers not in your office. Most roles can be hybrid/remote. Regardless of Tech, Finance, Marketing, whatever, if the job involves sitting in front of a computer or being on the phone all day it's a good candidate. If you were doing the job remotely from March 2020 through the end of 2021 and being effective, it's a good candidate.

Sales also has long established and standard ways to measure performance

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#103

Post by electronbeam »

KittenInABox wrote: post #43
blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do cities actually subsidize suburban infrastructure? I am skeptical but I don’t know all of the details on how people come to that conclusion. What happens if the economy is more spread out? Also a lot of the people that own and run companies that give a city its tax base live in the suburban areas. It might even be reasonable to say that they are the ones subsidizing the city and not the other way. How do you think…

It's not like cities give their money to every suburban mom. It's like this: Suburbs cannot function without freeways, but the presence of freeways harm the property values of city neighborhoods not suburban ones. SFH simply produces less tax revenue than an entire apartment building by land, so any statewide social services (education, freeway maintenance...) is paid proportionately more by cities than by SFH. There…

The should raise the taxes to account for land size to make it fair

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#104

Post by shrikant »

jjulius wrote: post #97
barsonme wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s insane. 13 hours of work + commute. After 7 hours of sleep you only have 4 hours left in your day for literally everything else.

>13 hours of work... ... what?

13 hours of (work + commute) -- that's 5 hours of commute + 8 hours of work.

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#105

Post by angmarsbane »

skzv wrote: post #18

I go to the office almost everyday by choice. Free food, snacks, and coffee, gym, and medical clinics on campus. And it's just nice to get dressed and leave the house. But it's really nice to have the flexibility to WFH when I need to, especially just mornings to skip traffic.

On-site childcare would guarantee I go into the office.

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#106

Post by ultimafan »

mschuster91 wrote: post #99
ultimafan wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the exact opposite- I didn't have the discipline to keep working when I work from home- my productivity plummeted during COVID and skyrocketed when RTO was mandated again. At home I'm too easily distracted by errands, hobby projects in the garage, picking up a book to read "just a chapter" on a coffee break and realizing 2-3 hours have passed, and the like. In office I feel obligated to actually be productive…

> In office I feel obligated to actually be productive from the combined shame of being seen as a slacker and less physical opportunities to goof off. If anything, an office makes for more unproductivity than working remotely. No random people showing up at your desk with "can you help out real quick (LOL) here and there", no "hey we gotta wait for colleague XYZ before we head for lunch break", no coffee room talk...

That's true. I suppose if you are a person who has an iron will and good discipline the potential for productivity is much higher at home where you can lock in and just grind for a few hours with no interruptions. I am not that person and suspect many others aren't either, so there's that conflict between potential and real world outcomes where some people are just more productive in office even with all the distractions you mentioned than in an environment where you can actually focus in a flow state but have no surrounding social pressure to do so. I suspect management figures the same which is probably part of why RTO is being pushed so hard.

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#107

Post by dmitrygr »

honkycat wrote: post #73

RTO is going to be brutal for us in 3rd tier cities like PDX The tech scene here SUCKS, but I much prefer the lifestyle to a large city ( plus, I can buy a house here. ) Not sure what will happen if the days of remote work ends. How will I get a gig? There was a time in the mid 2010s were they were obsessed with "servant leaders" and "leading from the front"... those days are long-fucking-gone. Guarantee the executiv…

Plenty of places are still hiring remote. Do not lose hope

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#108

Post by grayfaced »

yieldcrv wrote: post #88
grayfaced wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds akin to saying a security breach doesn't matter until there are consequences. Not many companies would be comfortable being in the position that they have not verified the identities of employees who have access to payment processing data.

They did verify the identity to the standard required. The employee lied. Although analogies compare dissimilar things with a common attribute, your analogy relies on saying all employees are security breaches. These are employees competent to work in medium sized all the way to big tech companies as software engineers.

Every company with sensitive data need to consider insider threat risk. Many compliance standards require background checks specifically because employees can lie. My point is simple, it's not as simple as "employee complete tasks? Y/N" but that every employee is a potential liability that businesses need to do risk management according to their role. Remote work makes that more complicated, and requires different controls.

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#109

Post by ghaff »

layer8 wrote: post #76
blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #5

I applaud Microsoft and Google for not going with a full RTO. But hybrid work still requires you to live near an office. True remote work enables an economy that is spread out, resilient, and lets people live the way they want. We have this capability so why not do it?

I would hate to live in a world where I don’t regularly meet with coworkers face-to-face. Remote communication just isn’t the same, you lose a lot of signal and are more compartmentalized from each other. I’m saying that as an introvert. But I also have a short commute and a nice office.

At my last company I was officially in-office but I basically never went in because essentially everyone I worked with was in a different office or even a different country.

Re: Google won't be mandating a strict return-to-office plan

#110

Post by hamandcheese »

worstspotgain wrote: post #39
xyst wrote: post #12

They say this now. But in 12 months (or the next layoff period), they will move from hybrid to full RTO. Still a shitty move to mandate RTO. Most people (IT folks) have spoke with do this routine: 0) daily routine to prepare for day 1) 1 hr commute to shitty office 2) login to computer, do calls with cross regional (and international) teams over Zoom/Teams/Webex or whatever conferencing system 3) teleconferencing wit…

In the Bay Area, 1-hour commutes are generally for older and apartment people. Younger family people are in the 2+ range.

Everyone I know with a long commute can afford a shorter commute, they just trade the commute for a larger single-family dwelling.
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