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Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

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Re: Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

#21

Post by Macha »

readonthegoapp wrote: post #19
amf12 wrote: post #13

I don't understand the negative sentiment with this. Do people expect employers to assign everyone a big desk, which is not completely open office and also have the flexibility to come to the office 1-2 days a week? I hope there are exceptions for people who come in everyday, but otherwise it's a win-win the way I see it.

part of it, for me, is that this policy says, 'hey googlers, we order you to _not_ come to the office -- at least, not at the same time or day as your desk friendo, or your desk friendos.' so when CEO 'x' says, 'everyone back to the office, we need to whisper sweet idea nothings to each other on our way to/from the bathroom, in the office, so that we can $$$$$' -- ceo google just said, "that's obviously untrue, and c…

Google is also one of those companies pushing for RTO though, from what I understood.

Re: Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

#23

Post by dwrodri »

tchalla wrote: post #2

> “Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler,” the internal document stated, noting they expect employees to come in on alternate days so they're not at the same desk on the same day. “Through the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment.” If only, there was an easier sol…

Surely there will be someone who will realize that you can approach this problem by building a matching engine based on Hall's Marriage Theorem[1], and then deploy it onto multiple regions for maximum anti-fragility, get promoted, rally some new hires to launch it as an extension of Google Workplace, get promoted again, abandon the project, and then have the feature die 10 months after public launch wondering why operating it cost so much money.

At least, that would be the Google WayTM of doing it, right?

1: https://brilliant.org/wiki/hall-marriage-theorem/

Re: Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

#25

Post by vechagup »

I'm not in the PA that will be sharing desks but sit in one of the affected offices. I can see about 100 desks from where I am right now. All of them are assigned to someone, but only 6 presently have someone sitting there. Occupancy of our corner peaks at maybe 30%?

Something was bound to happen given all the unused real estate. But it's shitty that those of us who actually use our desks, because we rather like work-home separation, now might end up with a desk time share. Maybe all those people who didn't actually want to come to the office should have just filed for permanent remote?

Re: Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

#27

Post by vechagup »

Macha wrote: post #21
readonthegoapp wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

part of it, for me, is that this policy says, 'hey googlers, we order you to _not_ come to the office -- at least, not at the same time or day as your desk friendo, or your desk friendos.' so when CEO 'x' says, 'everyone back to the office, we need to whisper sweet idea nothings to each other on our way to/from the bathroom, in the office, so that we can $$$$$' -- ceo google just said, "that's obviously untrue, and c…

Google is also one of those companies pushing for RTO though, from what I understood.

RTO is barely being pushed for. They said "you should come to the office these 3 days", but almost no one did and no manager seems to care.

Re: Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

#29

Post by russellbeattie »

Though I think Google's Bay View campus is gorgeous and probably a lovely place to work, I can't imagine it's a particularly efficient use of the space it takes up. I could be wrong though as I've never been inside. I'll give credit to Google for not building another box full of cubicles, but it seems like it was meant to compete with Apple's spaceship in terms of impressive design, rather than somewhere for thousands of employees to get work done. Anyone know how many desks the buildings have and who gets to work there?

https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/bay-view-ca...

Re: Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

#30

Post by fatbird »

> to ensure... desks are kept clean and free from personal items.

This was called "hotdesking", then "hotelling", and it's unclear why I would arrange with a coworker to timeshare a desk when a proper hotdesking arrangement would likely be cheaper and easier.

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