Sounds like Google is eliminating remote work. Has VP Urs Holzle returned from New Zealand? https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/google-exec-remote-work-wfh...
Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
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Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#112It might be useful to "all be in the room" when brainstorming. Once the coding starts, this is just a set of distractions I don't need. I suspect many/most of the developers reading HN want peace and quiet far more than the chance of magical hallway conversations. And it's only an anecdote, but we debugged a problem today where people were in two provinces of Canada and the UK. Were perfectly able to share screens, r…
Fully remote with 2-3 day quarterly in-person meet ups would provide tech companies with the in person collaboration they seek and be cheaper. Remote first companies do this all the time. Employees feel way better about it if the company provides hotel and accommodations when doing destination meet ups.
We used to do this in a startup I worked at. Was a lot cheaper to book a big AirBnB for the meet-ups than to have a fixed office space. And we could pick interesting meet-up locations.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#113After going back and forth between in-person and remote jobs, my conclusion: * Remote work is much better if you know what you're building and "just" need to execute. * In-person is much better if you don't know what you need to build, are trying to "figure it out as you go along", and are relying on the implicit fast feedback loop of standing next to each other. Obvious, right? But I think what I've realize is the d…
> "Yeah so just talk to a bunch of people and look for opportunities to contribute."
Hard relate. Had my first internship WFH at Big Tech during the pandemic. I had expected work to be more on the lines of: there's always a lot of work to be done, and people will let you know about that. Instead it was the opposite, exactly as quoted above.
While it meant I had more freedom, I would have preferred if someone just doled out concrete tasks to me. I felt a bit lost. But then again, grass is greener on the other side.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#114After going back and forth between in-person and remote jobs, my conclusion: * Remote work is much better if you know what you're building and "just" need to execute. * In-person is much better if you don't know what you need to build, are trying to "figure it out as you go along", and are relying on the implicit fast feedback loop of standing next to each other. Obvious, right? But I think what I've realize is the d…
> * Remote work is much better if you know what you're building and "just" need to execute.
> * In-person is much better if you don't know what you need to build, are trying to "figure it out as you go along", and are relying on the implicit fast feedback loop of standing next to each other.
This is why the other day I ranted about how my actual preference is in office but having a door that I can close. Realistically we shift between these two modes. In the first mode I need to reduce distractions and isolate myself. This is hard with slack and hard with an open office or cubicles. In person let's me even ignore slack as someone can knock on my door if it is urgent! But that's not all the time, so I open the door and communicate that it is collaboration and discussion phase.
I don't know why companies have become so allergic to doors. They are amazing and can let employees be in control of the chaos of work schedules. They'll know far better than anyone else if they're more productive that day/hour/minute in isolation or in collaboration. Micromanaging doesn't help, a door does.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#115This is just another form of layoffs, I think. The problem is that many other execs will follow. It's bizarre how this is purely about making life worse for the engineers without any rational reason.
100%
This is absolutely another form of layoffs. Google get the double benefit of 1) loose head count 2) only keeping dedicated* people.
They do loose people with the highest agency as they will be the first to leave.
* Those dedicated people could also just be most in need.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that so? WFH is still a largely a COVID thing, even 3 times a day is still better than going to office 5 times week, as before?
Any number of days > 0 will require people to live near the office. Many people can't afford that anymore and moved away and moved away because of that or other reasons.
Twice a week could, if your partner enables it for kids, to go to office on the morning, sleep there and go back at the end of the next day once per week and then wfh the rest of the week in your big home in a nice place to live.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#117RTO is a manager v labour issue.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#118After going back and forth between in-person and remote jobs, my conclusion: * Remote work is much better if you know what you're building and "just" need to execute. * In-person is much better if you don't know what you need to build, are trying to "figure it out as you go along", and are relying on the implicit fast feedback loop of standing next to each other. Obvious, right? But I think what I've realize is the d…
> My instructions when I joined were something like "Yeah so just talk to a bunch of people and look for opportunities to contribute". Do you mind sharing the job title for something like this? Sounds like a dream job.
It’s less a job title (I’m a “software engineer” like everyone else) but the scope of the problem your role is aiming to solve. Look for places that 1. have an unsolved hard problem with 2. no real direction on where to go with it and 3. buy-in from someone to get it solved.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#119I never cease to be amazed the extent to which companies are trying to squeeze the remote work genie back into the bottle. They're desperate to find ways to make that expensive office space seem justified. "See, look! The people are using it. They love it." (Just out of frame, guns are pointed at the workers.)
Not only trying, but largely succeeding. I haven't seen one instance where these decisions have been reversed due to pushback.
That’s because people just leave.
Re: Google uses in-person office attendance as part of employee performance reviews
#120A friend of mine who is a PM at google was telling me about this the other week. Her job situation sounded so tenuous, in that a lot of it hinged on how cool her manager was with her living situation not being in SF. Also having to ask a friend to swipe her badge because she couldn't afford living in SF.
How can she not afford to live in SF on ~$300k a year?