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Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

reuters.com

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Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#311

Post by rodgerd »

skybrian wrote: post #201

I've worked at a startup where everyone being there was essential in how we worked. (We were all pair programming.) It was great. It beats code reviews any day. I learned a lot. But when I was at Google, we would schedule VC meetings with people in a different part of campus just to avoid the walk. Also, I worked on teams that had people worked out in many offices, mostly not Mountain View. I was surrounded by Google…

> But when I was at Google, we would schedule VC meetings with people in a different part of campus just to avoid the walk.

This is a solid point; I work for a company that had four key buildings in two cities at the start of the pandemic; in reality, we were a "remote company" who were just rubbish at remote practises. The pandemic forced us to be remote-first, which fed back into being better organised for day-to-day.

I suspect most companies have this sort of mixed-model, and are just shitty at remote work.

(I will also note, as always, that there is a rich irony that big tech firms who push cloud-everything, remote collaboration tools and so on, won't eat their own dogfood. How much of Google watching Zoom walk away with the video calling market was due to their intransigence on this?)

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#313

Post by throoo0ooowaway »

kbos87 wrote: post #110

I work for a large tech company based on the east coast. My partner works for another large tech company. We are both mid-level managers at companies that seem to be taking a pretty dramatically different approach. My company: - Started with a strong in-office culture - Communicated to managers that all employees now have a choice between being fully remote, hybrid, or in-office; there’s never a mandate to be in pers…

Your partner's company sounds like the one I left recently, for those exact reasons...

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#314

Post by Copernicron »

librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

> I personally prefer a company where everyone's on site. I want to be able to quickly resolve any issues in person, not over voice call or slack, and I think that an environment where someone can tap me on the shoulder when they need help leads to overall higher productivity, even if individual productivity suffers temporarily.

This has been one of my main complaints about the full time WFH during covid. If we were all in the office I could turn around in my chair and ask whoever I needed to a question. With WFH I have had to sometimes wait 24 hours or more for a response. So I was stuck spinning my wheels for hours because I was blocked without knowing which esoterically name database table to query.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#315

Post by willjp »

I seem to be the minority, but this makes me sad. Personally, I find it much less productive to work in an office, with all of the background chatter, interruptions, distractions, meetings. It's my fourth year of full remote work and I don't miss the office one bit. I really enjoy being able to prepare healthier/fresh lunches, and I probably work too much overtime either way.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#316

Post by Wiseacre »

berg117 wrote: post #261
munificent wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Agreed. We've proven that big tech companies can continue to be productive for up to two years going remote. I suspect that that doesn't generalize very well to being completely remote over the long term. It works well when you already have a bunch of personal relationships between teammates that were es…

There's a 95% chance that this is a disguised RIF. People they want to keep will be able to continue WFH if they want. People who are on the margins or destined for the Performance Improvement Camps will have to come in and warm seats if they want to eke out a year or two more of existence.

What is an RIF?

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#317

Post by julianlam »

munificent wrote: post #174
librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

> We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Agreed. We've proven that big tech companies can continue to be productive for up to two years going remote. I suspect that that doesn't generalize very well to being completely remote over the long term. It works well when you already have a bunch of personal relationships between teammates that were es…

> Agreed. We've proven that big tech companies can continue to be productive for up to two years going remote.

This sentence amuses me a bit. Does that also mean that American Democracy has only been proven to work for up to 245 years? :-)

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#318

Post by erosenbe0 »

jahewson wrote: post #185
librish wrote: post #84

I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…

I think such an office environment leads to lower productivity. I too present no evidence for this claim. Personally I think I’m right! We should do it my way.

There are no firm answers. Consider health effects.

Some of my colleagues struggled to maintain their health without their daily walks to the train, or just overworked themselves adapting to remote meetings and tools. Others are physically and mentally much healthier after substituting extra sleep, exercise, or preparation of healthy meals for the commute time.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#319

Post by weq »

unethical_ban wrote: post #222
kcb wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Most big tech companies are public. Record earnings and stock prices throughout the pandemic prove more than just not crashing and burning.

Two years is a short sample for "all society". We've all been in emergency mode. Let's see how it shakes out for a generation. There are pros and cons to remote work, and I wish more people were honest about the cons. I think a lot of people hand-wave it away because they like the idea of living where they want.

No post body was provided.

Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

#320

Post by UncleMeat »

InTheArena wrote: post #160

I think people need to look at the multiplier FAANG companies provide salary / bonus / RSU wise. My experience is that these companies pay a significant market premium, but expect total control over your life for that margin. Everyone else I suspect is going to adapt to this work. There are people who want to work in a office. People who don't. We will need to find ways to make both successful.

> but expect total control over your life for that margin

Today I started work at 11 and ended work at 4 because I slept poorly last night. I'm a staff engineer at Google. This "total control" thing hasn't been my experience at all.

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