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Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

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Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#131

Post by HlessClaudesman »

oofta-boofta wrote: post #13

Google looked at how sailors share space on a sub and were like "yeah, that's the ticket". Hot-desking is the worst way to be in-office, on top of the worst way of working which is in-office. What happened to being a forward thinking and innovative company? These "geniuses" can't use their superior big brains just barely hiding under those infantilizing propeller hats to figure out a way to make remote work effective…

Google seems to have taken their eye off the ball when it comes to providing accurate search results.

Someone at the top of Google seems to have cranked the results prioritising slider all the way towards recency of information instead of accuracy, growing a million spammy fly by night sites instead of defaulting to trusted sources of information. As a programmer its so hard to get information from a technical query in Google these days.

Does Google search have a QA dept? Are they able to compare how accurate search is today compared to a year / decade ago? Does anyone at Google listen to them?

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#132

Post by hypothesis »

jeffbee wrote: post #44
grogenaut wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in what amazon called double high density once. one guy had to duck under anoterh guys desk to get to his. so basically against fire code. the better way i've seen it there was where you will not quite bump into the person behind you if you push back. I was only in that once. usually I had an extra foot. I'm in low density right now it's good. Amazon never gave us smaller desks, they were always door desks. Tha…

An entire door? Luxury!

I honestly can not tell if this is real or if everyone in this thread is laying too thick...

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#133

Post by astrange »

jaggederest wrote: post #98
bboygravity wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain what things shareholders generally request? As far as I know the only duty a company has towards shareholders is "protect them" (aka: don't mess up and make money). As long as the company eventually does that there is no issue. Even if it takes 8 quarters to become profitable (or 10+ years, see Amazon). There are probably ways in which shareholders can get together and request something (in court?), b…

Look at the history of activist investors like Carl Icahn. They will happily start a proxy war to oust management to wring the last cent out of a company, or file a minority shareholder lawsuit alleging all kinds of malfeasance to tank the stock to be able to buy up a controlling interest. The 80s M&A boom had all kinds of crazy things, and it makes recent history look somewhat mild by comparison. These days the vast…

Investors in Google (or Meta) don't have voting rights. You simply can't do any of that stuff. All you can do is not invest, which means the price doesn't go up, but that hasn't been happening.

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#134

Post by alex_lav »

riffraff wrote: post #84
bbor wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It _is_ objectively true that WFH is better for the environment. But oh well, so far wildfires are contained to just wildfire season, so not a big deal :))))))

WFH may be better for the environment but that is a different thing than "the best way of working". I've been remote for 14 years, I love it, but I've worked with plenty of people who didn't and went back to an office.

> I've been remote for 14 years, I love it, but I've worked with plenty of people who didn't and went back to an office.

I've seen this level of reasonability probably less than 10 times when the remote vs. office debate breaks out. It's a real shame that sites like HN behave identically to twitter and reddit wrt actual conversation and debate about working environments.

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#135

Post by sulam »

skybrian wrote: post #32
oofta-boofta wrote: post #13

Google looked at how sailors share space on a sub and were like "yeah, that's the ticket". Hot-desking is the worst way to be in-office, on top of the worst way of working which is in-office. What happened to being a forward thinking and innovative company? These "geniuses" can't use their superior big brains just barely hiding under those infantilizing propeller hats to figure out a way to make remote work effective…

There's nothing about hot-desking in the article. What's your source on that? A long time ago when I worked there, I didn't like working in the office sometimes, but sitting out on the balcony with a laptop wasn't so bad. Can't do that on a sub :-)

As covered publicly, Cloud is hot desking but only requiring a couple days a week in the office to make it work. Other parts of Google are not hot desking. Most are hybrid, 3 days a week in the office. Honestly hot desking 2 days does not seem like a big deal to me.

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#136

Post by ffgjgf1 »

Osiris wrote: post #68
space_invaders wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has turned into the "new IBM" for years now. I've worked with Google engineers and managers from different "generations". It's shocking how the newer engineers are just your average consultancy engineer with leet code practice. They have little abstracting capabilities and would be pissed-off if you use some tool/workflow that's not "The Google Way™" (and that includes things like Github for code reviews (inst…

I worked at a startup with just 2 other engineers. They hired a guy from Google with a decade less experience than me. When I arrived I was taking my time to understand the culture, company, needs, etc. before making any suggestions. One example, they did Agile with sprints and I think KANBAN works better. But, I didn’t see it as an important issue to spend time on. So the Google guy comes in and from day 1 began mak…

> 26 year old CEO

In 95%+ cases that’s a pretty terrible idea

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#137

Post by epicureanideal »

ch4s3 wrote: post #79
Osiris wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at a startup with just 2 other engineers. They hired a guy from Google with a decade less experience than me. When I arrived I was taking my time to understand the culture, company, needs, etc. before making any suggestions. One example, they did Agile with sprints and I think KANBAN works better. But, I didn’t see it as an important issue to spend time on. So the Google guy comes in and from day 1 began mak…

You’re probably better off without that nonsense.

Except that nonsense is 90% of startups these days. Most of the people who get funded are well connected fools or charlatans. I’m shocked at how poorly money is invested.

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#138

Post by sulam »

Foobar8568 wrote: post #48
alex_lav wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> on top of the worst way of working which is in-office. It's funny how both sides of this debate present their opinions as fact

Hotdesk is the biggest bullshit ever. Can you imagine arriving at your office having to think, will I be able to seat next to team? Having to do conference call because no meeting room available just for the poor guy who cannot be there by 8? Best part, people consider their desks as they own it, I have seen people moving stuff just because some dared to seat there before they arrive with management approval.

This is not what Google is doing.

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#139

Post by bombolo »

grogenaut wrote: post #34
jeffbee wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google floor plans were ridiculously dense. I don’t have hard numbers on my fingertips but I recall that the sf business press systematically underestimated the number of employees in San Francisco based on industry average floor space per employee that was far too high. They constantly moved us from one floor to another always with smaller desks. As for question B, Moffett Place alone was 1.9 million square feet, so…

I was in what amazon called double high density once. one guy had to duck under anoterh guys desk to get to his. so basically against fire code. the better way i've seen it there was where you will not quite bump into the person behind you if you push back. I was only in that once. usually I had an extra foot. I'm in low density right now it's good. Amazon never gave us smaller desks, they were always door desks. Tha…

Don't you have fire departments in USA?

In Italy they can be called, or just randomly do an inspection and they can just say "this entire building is closed until you adhere to regulations".

I work in sweden now and this doesn't seem to be a thing either. Lots of things that in italy would get you shut down happen here. For example doors requiring 2 hands to be opened from the inside. In Italy they have to be hands free doors.

Re: Google cuts office space in Bay Area by more than a million square feet

#140

Post by thesuitonym »

epicureanideal wrote: post #122
financypants wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their duty is to keep revenue or profitability up and to the right. Every quarter that they don’t do this, analysts will grill the management team about what happened and what will change. The company is forced into a cycle, quarter by quarter, of underestimating earnings, outperforming estimates, and pleasing investors.

Or they could grow a spine and declare they’re not playing that short sighted game.

they could, and occasionally a few CEOs do this. It is not the norm, though.
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