Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google asks some employees to share desks amid office downsizing

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 214 posts

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

#201

Post by wink »

ryandrake wrote: post #159
cududa wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the employer's purview. They can incentivize health but, seriously F right off with that controlling nonsense. They're employees, not your charges or children.

Not that I agree with the practice, but many retail employees (at least in the USA) are required to stand while working, even if the job can easily be done while seated, as is the case for receptionists, fast food and grocery cashiers, and so on. It's definitely within the company's purview, even if the practice is unnecessarily cruel.

I think the only cashiers I see standing in Germany are at IKEA and hardware stores (because they have to stand to scan half the huge parts), and even then I think they have a chair inside their little spot next to the scanner and the conveyor belt. Only the "info booth" people are usually standing.

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

#202

Post by vladvasiliu »

a13o wrote: post #86

Pretty unlikely for two people to share ergonomic settings across the desk hardware. If you've been in this industry long enough you've got to be careful about wrist, neck, leg, and eye strain and that often boils down to setting your chair and monitor just so, and customized ergonomic peripherals. A policy like this is biased against older and differently abled employees whether that was the intention or not.

I absolutely hate it when someone sits at my desk when I'm out of office and moves my chair, screen, etc. Bonus points for people pulling on cables and leaving a godawful mess behind. My favorite is when they unplug my computer (because no one has a power adapter anymore) and leave it off...

But most people I've seen don't give a crap about their working conditions. They'll put up a family picture or two and call it day. I've seen hardly anyone adjust the height of their chairs, let alone the desk (ours are adjustable, but it's more involved than the chair). Many will work hunched over their laptops when they have a perfectly usable screen right in front of them. Yes, there are cables, and yes, they're compatible with the PCs.

My company thinks a keyboard is a keyboard, so they figure the crappy basic HP with mushy keys you need to press exactly right and that have your wrists bent up are just fine, so I brought my own peripherals. I have also insisted on having an adequate screen, trading two crappy nonadjustable ones for an OK one that sits at the right height and has decent contrast. It also provides my laptop with power and cuts down on random cables hanging around. It's also cheaper than the standard two crappy screens + docking station, so it's clearly not an issue of spending money. Comfort is simply not a consideration. But no one else complains.

But the point is that, in my company, I'm pretty sure no one would bring up ergonomic considerations as an issue with hot desks. And I doubt it's any different in your average corp.

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

#203

Post by ElfinTrousers »

dwrodri wrote: post #17

Google's South Lake Union campus cost $802 million[1]. Google's parent company, Alphabet, spent $70 billion on stock buybacks[2]. I know I'm drastically oversimplifying the complexities of accounting required for a trillion-dollar empire, but this comes across as more of a punitive measure than a cost-saving measure. I acknowledge that being able to take the force of money and apply in a direction that results in gro…

> It feels as though Sundar and the board decide stray away from doing things that keep their employees at the happiest (and most loyal to the company) because that doesn't help the company grow at a rate that would please shareholders.

Which would be completely normal behavior for the CEO of a large publicly traded company and its board, which is the real problem.

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

#204

Post by ElfinTrousers »

timeless102 wrote: post #168
Ancalagon wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes perfect sense if they’re trying to downsize without paying severance/unemployment.

If they don't come it and don't resign themselves, then I assume google would fire them in which case they would get severance? Is that how it works? It's only an issue if the people who wfh resign then they would not get severance/unemployment?

I'm sure that everyone that Google would fire because of this would receive at least the severance prescribed by law: nothing.

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

#205

Post by ElfinTrousers »

x86x87 wrote: post #4
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…

What's next? No more food in the office? The best and brightest minds of our generation being treated as children. Oh yeah. This is going to work out just fine.

> The best and brightest minds of our generation being treated as children.

That's always been Google's move. Get some CS graduates from top schools, ideally right after graduation, and stretch out the campus experience as far as they can into the working world. Prevents them from developing the kind of independent thinking that might lead them to conclude that working at Google is not that great.

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

#206

Post by ElfinTrousers »

hprotagonist wrote: post #49

So Y.T.'s mom has clacked up the stairs in her black pumps and gone into her office, actually a large room with computer workstations placed across it in a grid. Used to be divided up by partitions, but the EBGOC boys didn't like it, said what would happen if there had to be an evacuation? All those partitions would impede the free flow of unhinged panic. So no more partitions. Just workstations and chairs. Not even…

Except, Stevenson being a smug right-winger (or at least the Stevenson who wrote this, I haven't followed his books in recent decades), this was the Federal government of the time he was describing. Back in reality, Google is a large publicly traded corporation. Surprise!

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

#207

Post by 2ICofafireteam »

jrockway wrote: post #117
shmatt wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd work from a toilet stall for a Google L6 comp band I doubt any Googlers actually care about this stuff

Google definitely doesn't have a spare toilet for you. I remember a group of coworkers threatening to file a complaint with OSHA because the number of toilets was so limited. (I just used the bathrooms that were part of the building but not managed by Google. They were not "nice" so nobody was ever in there, but it was better than waiting in line to use the facilities.)

Go to the municipality about occupant loads. Floor area and bathroom capacity are the main factors where I am.

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

#208

Post by 2ICofafireteam »

sct202 wrote: post #125
dgacmu wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a chance. Toilet stalls are in higher demand (during peak hours) than desks.

My company switched to hot desks and didn't add any restroom capacity even though the peak building population was much higher. It was pretty terrible on days where everyone was there for all hands/townhalls.

I just commented elsewhere about this, but look into the allowed occupant load; bathroom capacity is a factor where I am.

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

#209

Post by xracy »

vechagup wrote: post #25

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…

They didn't want a lot of people to work remote permanently. They explicitly discouraged it with a quota.

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

#210

Post by leros »

roflyear wrote: post #176
leros wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies like Google have a unique problem. They attract the best engineers, but they still have lots of boring work to be done. So they end up hiring brilliant engineers only to have them work on uninteresting things like financial reports. My company created a whole separate job title which basically equates to "less skilled and lower payed developer" so we can hire more average engineers to do that kind of work w…

At least Google compensates those employees!

Yeah, but having a bunch of unhappy employees isn't healthy either.
Post reply on HN