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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

#161

Post by [deleted] »

u801e wrote: post #142
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…

> that includes things like Github for code reviews I've never worked at Google, but if you want a clean set of commits to implement a feature (think Linux kernel/subsystem, git, etc), Github makes it unnecessarily hard to do that. The best they have is squash and merge which basically makes one mega commit and a merge commit that references a branch with a single commit.

[deleted]

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

#162

Post by [deleted] »

space_invaders wrote: post #50
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 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…

[deleted]

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

#163

Post by cameldrv »

astrange wrote: post #133
jaggederest wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They do have the right to sell the stock.

If too many of them do, the stock goes down, and essentially everyone at the company (especially the executives) take a pay cut. The executives aren't even just thinking about their own pay. The entire company's ability to attract and retain talent depends on the stock price going up.

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

#164

Post by baq »

u801e wrote: post #142
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…

> that includes things like Github for code reviews I've never worked at Google, but if you want a clean set of commits to implement a feature (think Linux kernel/subsystem, git, etc), Github makes it unnecessarily hard to do that. The best they have is squash and merge which basically makes one mega commit and a merge commit that references a branch with a single commit.

I’ve just reviewed ‘spr’, ‘git-spr’ and ‘git-grok’ which supposedly make it easier to submit a stack of prs for review. They all kinda work, I didn’t like any though. GitHub really makes it more difficult than it should be.

I think ‘stg’ with a GitHub publish/stack sync option would be a winner.

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

#165

Post by Bajeezus »

adastra22 wrote: post #100
thesuitonym wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Company I work for did this. Our CFO said he never wants to deal with real estate again. I will follow this man to the depths of hell and back.

No you won’t. You’ll be behind your keyboard on a beach while he goes to hell and back.

Speaking from experience: You can work your ass off from a beach. If anything, I'm more likely to do so

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

#166

Post by bbor »

alex_lav wrote: post #121
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 :))))))

If you move the goalposts or are vague enough, anything can be true. Working from home is worse for the environment than abolishing capitalism, which is the driving force behind global warming. See? Conversation is useless if we ignore context or intent.

…I don’t think that’s what “moving the goalposts” means? What were the goalposts?

I was just observing that WFH is better for the environment than WFO, which I would again say is just an objective fact. Obviously peoples priorities differ, and I guess some people don’t see climate change as real so would fight me on it being a fact, but I feel completely certain about that assertion.

Re: capitalism, I mean, yeah… isn’t that also true? Much much more subjective but capitalism sure seems to be doing a number on the planet. Again what we want to do with that fact is up to priorities but… well tbh I’m confused about what you’re cross about!

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

#167

Post by bbor »

ffgjgf1 wrote: post #146
alex_lav wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you move the goalposts or are vague enough, anything can be true. Working from home is worse for the environment than abolishing capitalism, which is the driving force behind global warming. See? Conversation is useless if we ignore context or intent.

It’s not like the USSR cared about the environment even the tiniest bit.. Under capitalism at least you get free speech and therefore some public pressure to impose various regulations.

Capitalism has nothing to do with freedom of speech. See: capitalist countries without freedom of speech.

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

#168

Post by quickthrower2 »

fbdab103 wrote: post #27
quickthrower2 wrote: post #21

So maybe 1000-2000 staff worth of space? A lot, but maybe not alot for G.

500-1000 square feet per employee sounds way too high.

I was thinking Google would cram in the employees, but need another 100% on top of that for the fancy spaces with weird chairs, baristas, food courts, etc.

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

#169

Post by bbor »

grogenaut wrote: post #153
bbor wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the desk-sharing vibes are, as the kids wisely say, cursed. No personalization of decorations or monitors, can't work flexibly, etc. etc. etc.

working at twitch... few of our desks had custom desks, just nice dual monitors or one ultrawide at every desk. now decorations/personalization i'll give you, we had those in spades... we don't currently have the density to hot desk but most people used default keyboards, or we had lockers to store your keyboard overnight to hotel when we though we were doing that. so why is the lack of monitor personalization cursed…

I guess it mostly comes down to feelings. Maybe this metaphor can illustrate my feelings: living out of AirBnBs wouldn’t mean you would miss any specific amenities, but I would feel much less happy without the ability to relax in a place that feels “mine”. It’s something about routine and weaving a comforting self-narrative, I think.

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

#170

Post by whiplash451 »

space_invaders wrote: post #50
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 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…

Not a Googler, but the point about gerrit vs gitlab is totally valid.

The tools you use are culture-defining.

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