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Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

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Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#421

Post by JoeAltmaier »

bumbada wrote: post #334

I have been working remotely for decades. Most people can't work remotely and productively because they are not trained to do so. E.g. You are in your office (inside your home) and your wife, your dog or child enters it demanding you do some kind of non important issue right now, distracting you from your work.You need to be trained to not them let them distract you. The people living in your house need to be trained…

This chestnut 'home has too many distractions' line is getting old. Work has equivalent distractions, and those people actually get paid to distract you. It takes time management wherever you sit your butt.

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#422

Post by Nebasuke »

DebtDeflation wrote: post #349
Cd00d wrote: post #151

I'm a little shocked by this. I thought the big tech companies and Google specifically were leading the charge in "we will allow significant WFH forever going forward", but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. Personally, I'm at a small data company, and we're opening a new office for people where WFH is a burden (NYC apartments and all), but is so far voluntary. In fact, I think there are only seats for less than…

When companies started announcing "permanent 100% WFH" last Spring I knew it would never last. I feel bad for the people who picked up and moved from SV or NYC and now are being told to expect to be back in their old office by June. Though it was naive to think you could move to a cabin in Wyoming with a Starlink and continue to pull an SV or NYC level TC.

Maybe this is the case with companies that announced "permanent 100% WFH", but Google never announced this.

As someone working at Google, there was never any surprise Google did not announce a permanent WFH solution, since it has not been part of the company culture nor did they put out any expectations you would be able to WFH permanently.

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#423

Post by ocdtrekkie »

snakeboy wrote: post #388
varispeed wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can be friendly without having to socialise. Not sure why those things would have to go together? Doing socials after work is such a waste of time - sure it may be fun, but this way you are using up time that otherwise you could use to maintain friendships outside of work. Socialising at work is when you develop unconscious and conscious biases and it is a breeding ground for a toxic atmosphere and disruption of…

Isn't this also how a lot of friendships start? People finding themselves in a similar place/situation/habit/interests. So to me it seems a bit natural that workplace friendships would naturally develop. It's healthier to make an effort to have friendships outside of work as well, of course. Maybe I'm being naïve, but I don't see how "toxic atmosphere and disruption of team dynamics" would result from these casual fr…

FWIW, I've built and strengthened plenty of friendships with coworkers via Teams, which obviously, I've used a lot more during the pandemic. This shouldn't seem that weird... I've made plenty of lasting long term friends over the Internet too.

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#424

Post by culopatin »

intricatedetail wrote: post #380
bumbada wrote: post #334

I have been working remotely for decades. Most people can't work remotely and productively because they are not trained to do so. E.g. You are in your office (inside your home) and your wife, your dog or child enters it demanding you do some kind of non important issue right now, distracting you from your work.You need to be trained to not them let them distract you. The people living in your house need to be trained…

Worst thing is that my partner thinks sitting by a computer is not work and she feels entitled to interrupt any time she pleases. I didn't know that side when I worked in office. The first few months were difficult and she only came to terms with that when I started packing my things and said I will be moving out. I learned that this is probably wrong relationship but it is hard to throw away those years, but I can't…

If you can’t have a conversation about this with your partner, your relationship has bigger issues.

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#425

Post by paulcole »

globular-toast wrote: post #366
wg0 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely - in knowledge economy, insisting on physical presence is darn damn stupid. And I don't want to hang "with friends at work" I go to "work" that has to be specified clearly and that I expect to deliver with purely professional merit driven collaboration and not friendships and gangs. I have friends or would love to have friends out of the place where I work. I want strict compartmentalisation between work a…

Agreed. Some people really seem to think work looks like this: https://www.dreamstime.com/happy-diverse-office-workers-team... If any serious work is being done in a company, it does not look like that. Why do people keep pedalling this lie? A big problem in engineering is a lot of the work is done by engineers in private and the supervisors don't get to see it or experience it. So they think it happens by magic and…

> If any serious work is being done in a company

You seem to be falling into the HN trap of “serious work = what I do” “not serious work = what I don’t do.”

I can assure you that group of people can provide value to customers/clients while looking like the people in that photo.

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#426

Post by rwnspace »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #421
bumbada wrote: post #334

I have been working remotely for decades. Most people can't work remotely and productively because they are not trained to do so. E.g. You are in your office (inside your home) and your wife, your dog or child enters it demanding you do some kind of non important issue right now, distracting you from your work.You need to be trained to not them let them distract you. The people living in your house need to be trained…

This chestnut 'home has too many distractions' line is getting old. Work has equivalent distractions, and those people actually get paid to distract you. It takes time management wherever you sit your butt.

> and those people actually get paid to distract you

And thus a veneer of legitimacy curtails the otherwise dragging distraction of guilt.

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#427

Post by nojito »

eertami wrote: post #257
darawk wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, but I think it's reasonable to assume that their primary concern is productivity, and that at a company like Google, that concern will be analyzed in a data driven way. Perhaps they don't want to insult their developers by implying their productivity dipped, or something.

Google doesn't make decisions based on data. Google makes decisions based on what gets someone a promotion.

Nonsense. You don't get promoted for what you did. You get promoted for what you will do.

Everyone who has made it up the ladder knows this and it's the single aspect that differentiates people who routinely get overlooked for promotions from the individuals who steadily rise through the ranks

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#428

Post by johncena33 »

gfxgirl wrote: post #252
ohthehugemanate wrote: post #199

Just in case you were operating under the illusion that tech giants are run by forward thinking executives who are immune to the usual politics and problems of corporate life. Nope, most of their exec layer is a bunch of people who cut their teeth the industry in the 90's, and are operating within a thick fog of local workplace politics. I guarantee that behind this move is an executive who believes that developers n…

Disagree completely. All metrics at my company, gamedev, show throughput is down ~66% since WFH Me, I want to go back to the office. Like hanging out with my work friends.

I listened to a psychology prof., who said "the probability of encountering a person with anti-social trait in real life is extremely low, OTOH the probability of encountering a person with anti-social trait on internet is extremely high". Because internet provides a safe way to act toxic without any repercussion in real life.

When I see the OP comment which claims WFH is the only way and any other way to is just "backward thinking" in a very self-aggrandizing manner, I just remind myself that internet is safe haven for the type of people, whom I will rarely meet in real life.

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#429

Post by belval »

culopatin wrote: post #424
intricatedetail wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worst thing is that my partner thinks sitting by a computer is not work and she feels entitled to interrupt any time she pleases. I didn't know that side when I worked in office. The first few months were difficult and she only came to terms with that when I started packing my things and said I will be moving out. I learned that this is probably wrong relationship but it is hard to throw away those years, but I can't…

If you can’t have a conversation about this with your partner, your relationship has bigger issues.

For real, how hard is it to say "I am working, talk to you at lunch"?

Re: Google is accelerating reopening of offices and putting limits on remote work

#430

Post by saalweachter »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #336
caskstrength wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that 3 hours per day be better spent on meditating/yoga/woodcarving (or any other relaxing activity) instead? I mean driving doesn't appear to me like most relaxing activity, but maybe it is just my perspective.

I'd suspect the results would be different, the fact a commute is forced puts your brain into the mode where you solve creative problems in the background without thinking about them. There are good reasons ideas come out of nowhere to you in the shower or on a bus. That said I'd never ever have a 1+ hour commutes, 30 minutes is plenty but I have noticed a difference in inspiration this year and I put it down to this…

Once you throw mass transit into the mix, a long commute also becomes dedicated reading/napping/web-surfing/project-management/side-project time.

I was doing 90 minutes each way, four days a week, before; I'm currently not worried about going back to three days a week, although I'm a little curious if I'll feel differently once it happens.

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