I mean, not surprising, especially when people are still getting used to it. It takes time to get used to patterns needed and can be very distracting if you are not used to that.
Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
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Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#12It's dubious that folks at that skill level would lack the capacity to make WFH work for them. I've been remote for 10 years, I couldn't get in at the Googs. Working from home is not hard and there are a litany of resources for those who struggle.
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#13This smells like bullshit. Show us all the data or retract the article.
What would you want to see and why? Do you think this is some puff piece to influence people to want to get back working in offices? Hasn't google already stated that they aren't allowing people back until July 2021 or thereabouts?
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#14I think the key with working from home is learning to set up and maintain boundaries between home life and work life.
I was working from home fulltime for well over a year prior to the pandemic. Prior to that, I went into an open office every day for about 10 years.
Overall, if you subtract the time from a 1-hour round-trip commute, distractions from coworkers, and longer lunch breaks I had while going into the office, I'm definitely more productive at home.
At least most of the time.
Lately, I've noticed that my boundaries between work and home have been slipping. I'm less likely to tell my wife that I can't help her with something in the house during my work hours. I tend to run errands in the middle of the day. I was doing better, but I need to tighten things up a bit. I'm still productive, but there are weeks that could have been "highly productive" but instead started merging into my home life too much.
I'd wager that a lot of people have an ebb and flow in their productivity at home as boundaries become fuzzy and bad habits come and then go as you realize they're having an impact. And while I don't have kids, I can see how having kids would make working from home a huge challenge.
Let's also not forget that 2020 is a steaming pile of shit, and it's had more horrific distractions than any year in recent memory.
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#15Can't read the article since it is behind a paywall... but wanted to ask this question anyway: How much is that productivity hit because people are dealing with the fact that this pandemic is lasting longer than expected, more people are getting sick, more people are dying... You know, the amount of brain cycles spent worrying about the COVID-19 pandemic may also account for some of those feelings. I know I feel it.…
not only that but parents also have their kids home etc.. which wouldnt be the case under normal wfh conditions
Absolutely! Those aren't relevant to my case, I live alone (which makes the loneliness worse).
Yes, kids needing to do school from home requires a lot of time and effort, my co-workers are struggling to get their work completed because of it. I've taken over some of their tasks to help them out.
Also if you are permanent WFH (which I am since I switched jobs in May), you set up your work environment differently. I rented a 2 bed room apartment so that I would have an "office" that I could close at the end of the day. If you live in the Bay Area generally you rent a shoe box of a place because you spend most of the time at work, that is not longer the case.
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#16Can't read the article since it is behind a paywall... but wanted to ask this question anyway: How much is that productivity hit because people are dealing with the fact that this pandemic is lasting longer than expected, more people are getting sick, more people are dying... You know, the amount of brain cycles spent worrying about the COVID-19 pandemic may also account for some of those feelings. I know I feel it.…
not only that but parents also have their kids home etc.. which wouldnt be the case under normal wfh conditions
... and there's also a pretty wild election in the US, to add to people's anxiety.
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#17It's dubious that folks at that skill level would lack the capacity to make WFH work for them. I've been remote for 10 years, I couldn't get in at the Googs. Working from home is not hard and there are a litany of resources for those who struggle.
Being able to do good work remote and being as productive when working remote as when in office is different.
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#18I would guess based upon my own experience and talking to others:
1) the first 3-5 months were hard to figure out a good rhythm and is super impacted by how busy your house is (do you have kids, live-in parents, special needs kids etc)
2) many people have figured out a good rhythm by now and are doing fine
3) people who were new at the company this year are definitely having a much harder time since just sitting next to people is an easier way to sort of learn stuff by over hearing stuff rather than bugging people
4) long term "everybody working from home" likely is not a good setup.. more likely a mix is going to be a good setup.. where very likely new people should expect to be onsite for fairly extended periods of time until they have a much better sense of what to work on.. the other benefit of the "starting onsite" concept would be there would be less of the "oh but you live in north dakota so we don't want to pay you" shenanigans..
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#19On the other hand, I’m happier to work an additional 30 minutes if need be that I would otherwise have spent unpaid on my commute.
Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
#20It's dubious that folks at that skill level would lack the capacity to make WFH work for them. I've been remote for 10 years, I couldn't get in at the Googs. Working from home is not hard and there are a litany of resources for those who struggle.
Being able to do good work remote and being as productive when working remote as when in office is different.
Agreed. People who work remotely tend to be a lot more productive.