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Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

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Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#51

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

outside1234 wrote: post #36
eunoia wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally dislike the hybrid approach because it means everyone still has to remain in the greater Bay Area. Surely there have to be more people like me that enjoy the bigco work but want to live in more human friendly places where we have an actual shot at establishing roots and living real lives.

I hear you and there might be different models that can work for different teams. And I will note that the greater Bay Area just got a lot bigger if its only once a week.

You're right. Instead of 2-3 hours spent commuting each day, this way I'll only have to spend 10-15 hours once a week.

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#53

Post by bcrosby95 »

golover721 wrote: post #33
tartoran wrote: post #7

I got the taste of remote work and nothing’s gonna convince me it’s better in the office. Im more productive remotely, I save money on transportation and food, I save time, I am close to my toddler son, I could save the company a lot by not wasting the office space on me and most of all Im an introvert and for a long time I haven’t felt so comfortable. Why change that? I will seek a remote position other place if my…

One thing I find interesting is that individual contributors always seem to feel they are more productive when WFH. But at least anecdotally the upper management I have talked to in tech companies are saying that WFH has dropped productivity significantly. Now maybe this is just WFH w/ all the stresses of a pandemic vs. WFH in normal times, but it is interesting.

Also anecdotally, upper management I've talked to has noticed little to no difference in productivity.

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#54

Post by randomopining »

Company A: pays a ton for office, cleaning, etc. Pays employees the SF/NYC rate.

Company B: pays for team Meetups once a quarter or half a year. Workers take slightly lower pay because they can live anywhere.

Company B has way more bang for the buck on average.

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#55

Post by sparker72678 »

Animats wrote: post #48
sparker72678 wrote: post #35

Management is terrified of remote work because it reveals how useless many middle managers actually are.

One implication of work from home is that it makes manager performance more auditable. Everything a manager does is logged.

Exactly. And when most of your time is spent bringing people into your office to ask them for a project summary you could get online, remote shines a bright light on it.

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#56

Post by dnndev »

tartoran wrote: post #7

I got the taste of remote work and nothing’s gonna convince me it’s better in the office. Im more productive remotely, I save money on transportation and food, I save time, I am close to my toddler son, I could save the company a lot by not wasting the office space on me and most of all Im an introvert and for a long time I haven’t felt so comfortable. Why change that? I will seek a remote position other place if my…

It gets old after a while. The first 8-10 years are fun then you just want a change.

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#57

Post by ryandrake »

golover721 wrote: post #33
tartoran wrote: post #7

I got the taste of remote work and nothing’s gonna convince me it’s better in the office. Im more productive remotely, I save money on transportation and food, I save time, I am close to my toddler son, I could save the company a lot by not wasting the office space on me and most of all Im an introvert and for a long time I haven’t felt so comfortable. Why change that? I will seek a remote position other place if my…

One thing I find interesting is that individual contributors always seem to feel they are more productive when WFH. But at least anecdotally the upper management I have talked to in tech companies are saying that WFH has dropped productivity significantly. Now maybe this is just WFH w/ all the stresses of a pandemic vs. WFH in normal times, but it is interesting.

> But at least anecdotally the upper management I have talked to in tech companies are saying that WFH has dropped productivity significantly.

Curious: has any major tech company yet publicly provided numbers showing WFH negatively impacts productivity or profitability?

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#58

Post by skwirl »

Guthur wrote: post #18

I can't personally say with confidence that these big companies are not being influenced by political motivations. I'm confident that if CBDs essentially die because of remote working it will be a financial apocalypse. There is so much wealth tied up in inflated inner city property that if it is suddenly not in demand anymore there will be a huge correction that is going to hurt a lot.

I can't say that the "health of CBDs" has come up in my company's discussions over the future of remote work. And I'm not sure why the company would care. We don't own any real estate. We lease our office space. I think this must be true of 95%+ of companies in Boston/Cambridge, where I'm located.

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#59

Post by jdavis703 »

phillipcarter wrote: post #52

Sad to see it, but I'm not terribly surprised either. I wrote about this after reading a few articles as well [0]. I also wonder if a lot of it is sunk cost related to office space. [0]: https://phillipcarter.dev/posts/remote-skeptical/

Our office lease ends in a few months. Yet we’re looking at moving to a larger space to accommodate all the new hires. I don’t think this has as much to do with sunk cost as it does with increasing collaboration.

Re: Remote working: Is Big Tech going off work from home?

#60

Post by faeriechangling »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #30
throwawayboise wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You assume that developers won't work for lower salaries, in exchange for the value that WFH provides?

In practice, I've found that most candidates don't really care about anything other than total compensation. I've worked at companies that offered private offices, work from home, great health insurance, flexible schedules, catered lunch every day, and all of the usual perks. We'd still lose out on hires to companies offering a couple thousand more than we did. Come decision time, few people are actually willing to t…

Netflix was pretty famous for pushing the idea that employees respond to cash more than anything else and did a lot to promote this idea among hot tech companies and I absolutely believe this is the mindset many managers have.

I've got to say though even if people are obsessed with the bottom line when it comes to picking a job, I've got to think stuff like WFH also impacts retention in some way. For me I'm physically healthier under WFH which means just my ability to keep a job skews me towards WFH jobs even before we consider preference.

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