Google is saving $1B per year as a result of employees working from home

Post by Tade0 » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 11:22 AM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #61

beambot wrote: post #4

Google may save $1B this year on the P&L, but I can assure you that a large cohort of employees are vastly less effective (especially parents!). Time will tell how wfh pans out in terms of long-term enterprise value creation, after confounding variables (i.e. COVID) are removed. Source: A lot of my Googler friends are itching to get back into the office -- whether parents or people whose social lives centered around…

I'm a parent, who does WFH, and definitely disagree about the preferability of office work. Sure my kids will occasionally pop their heads in the door to say hello. I guess that's an occasional distraction, which has some small productivity cost. You know what hurts productivity more? The soul-crushing experience of missing out on watching your kids grow up because you're spending all day in an office or commuting. I…

Post by etripe » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 11:39 AM UTC

noja wrote: post #213

squaredisk wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google saved that much money and the business didn't see a considerable negative impact (34% increase? Quite the opposite in fact.), then that news should be telling not just for Google, but for every company that previously catered to spoiled employees who jump on an airplane just to have lunch with the customer. Two lies COVID has forcibly flushed out and helped dispel: Lie #1: Remote work, cannot work. Lie #2:…

Your "lies" are missing the "outside of a pandemic" qualifier.

Post by pferde » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 11:46 AM UTC

pillefitz wrote: post #210

newusr429 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was the biggest advocate for WFH in the last year but recently I feel pretty down. Life feels so repetitive. Part of it is possibly lockdown, but a bigger part I think is that I have way more free time to think about things. All the shitty things about open office and commuting seemed to serve as a distraction that kept me more occupied. It's weird. I'm not saying WFH is bad, but there are definitely some effects t…

For me it's slacking of at the office without feeling guilty. Taking 10 minute coffee breaks, walking 5 minutes to the next toilet. At home I have far less interruptions and feel the need to be constantly available in Teams.

Post by williesleg » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 11:49 AM UTC

lrem wrote: post #202

seoaeu wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like one expense they saved on is sending out recruiters and engineers to likely thousands of career fairs, recruiting sessions, etc. Nobody would reasonably argue that skipping all of them is a sustainable strategy long term even if it hasn't hurt them much so far.

Oh, it is causing pain already. Recently I pitched to a friend fixing a component as a great project for a very junior engineer. Only to find out that neither his nor my team has any sufficiently junior engineers on hand. So the oceans will keep getting ever so slightly boiled until we hire some, or one of the too senior engineers runs out of more important things to do. Sure it won't bring Google down right away, bu…

Post by ghaff » Thu, Apr 29, 2021, 11:59 AM UTC

tim_hutton wrote: post #286

thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With re-zoning this won't be a problem. Just rezone it to residential. or residential/commercial.

Imagine how much nicer the cities of the world would become with many of the offices turned into residential. There would be a rebirth of local community.