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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

#571

Post by browningstreet »

DataJunkie wrote: post #568
kyrra wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Googler opinions are my own. I'd disagree at least a little here. Google has been surveying their staff about what they want to do after the pandemic is over, see this twitter thread where Google published some of it's data: https://mobile.twitter.com/lifeatgoogle/status/1308529118531... People are split on what they want. Maybe people could be better trained to wfh, but some of us just prefer an office. While I am l…

Oh no, please don't start with the magical hallway conversations. I've never had a worthwhile conversation in a hallway or microkitchen, ever. This argument needs to die.

Agreed -- I haven't worked on a project in the last ten years that didn't have some significant portion of relevant staff remotely located.

I'm not a developer, but I don't work with a group of people located in the same building, so all projects are de facto pretty remote heavy.

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

#572

Post by drited »

dgritsko wrote: post #551
specialist wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been advocating "quiet rooms", for head's down working, like a law library. Mitigation until such time employers acknowledge decades of empirical evidence that open offices and cube farms sabotage productivity, health, morale. (Never.)

Quiet rooms have some benefits, but a big downside is that I want to use the equipment I have at my desk - multiple monitors, mouse and keyboard, etc. The quiet rooms I've experienced have either no peripherals, or a shared set that is a significant downgrade from what I'd have at my (noisy) desk (or home).

Try the Immersive VR app on the Oculus Quest 2.

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

#573

Post by blaser-waffle »

tharne wrote: post #538
koide wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe I've made friends of some of my remote coworkers... That's also a thing.

Kudos to you, I and most people I know haven't cracked that particular nut in a meaningful way. It may be an unpopular opinion on this site, but I don't think the human mind is especially well-suited to remote work. We're social creatures by nature and our brains evolved to interact in the meatspace, rather than via a zoom call.

Aye, same. I'm friendly-ish with my coworkers, have played a couple of coworker-only rounds of Among Us, but honestly we're not especially tight and I'll probably never interact with them again once I leave.

At least in an office there is the geographic similarity and discussions that can come out of that, e.g. weather, housing market, sports teams, etc. But half my staff is in Mexico City, India, or the UK. We're swamped with work -- this post is me procrastinating -- and a huge number of them are contractors, vendors, and customers, who we're explicitly told not to get too close to.

And if I'm making friends online, there are far, far better forums for that, e.g. Discord, Reddit, etc.

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

#574

Post by [deleted] »

alexgmcm wrote: post #236
darawk wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the possibility that executives in charge of tens of thousands of developers might have some data you don't regarding its impacts on productivity in aggregate?

If they do then why don't they share it? I mean they must realise this is a pretty unpopular decision so why not share their justification. Otherwise it's just an appeal to authority - "Ours not to reason why.."

[deleted]

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

#575

Post by grillvogel »

jimmux wrote: post #107
grillvogel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>hate group behaviors and nonsensical smalltalk around lunch time. honestly im not sure how you can do well as a manager without some tolerance for that kind of thing

If you're managing people with a similar tolerance level then it's an asset.

but you don't get to decide who you manage

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

#576

Post by [deleted] »

raverbashing wrote: post #331
kmlx wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same for my clients. the drop in productivity was huge and forced some of them to start letting people go. and all of these companies are now asking their employees back to the office full time in a week or so. i am sure that if productivity hadn't dropped during WFH then there wouldn't be such a big issue. but when the whole company stops producing, then it's pretty clear what needs to be done...

Then address the issue instead of saying "ah this sucks" Is it their work conditions? IT limitations? Family? Just the fact that everything sucks?

[deleted]

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

#577

Post by kyrra »

DataJunkie wrote: post #568
kyrra wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Googler opinions are my own. I'd disagree at least a little here. Google has been surveying their staff about what they want to do after the pandemic is over, see this twitter thread where Google published some of it's data: https://mobile.twitter.com/lifeatgoogle/status/1308529118531... People are split on what they want. Maybe people could be better trained to wfh, but some of us just prefer an office. While I am l…

Oh no, please don't start with the magical hallway conversations. I've never had a worthwhile conversation in a hallway or microkitchen, ever. This argument needs to die.

My previous 2 companies it rarely happened, if ever. But it has happened a lot with me at Google. But I also think it's a property of the teams I am on. Other teams it doesn't seem to happen as often.

Having whiteboards around, I will see people talking about certain things or explaining some new system, and it's easy to jump in. Maybe these could be considered impromptu meetings, but they still have been great for me.

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

#578

Post by nullsense »

alexgmcm wrote: post #256
nullsense wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm gonna need every Dev who hasn't seen that movie to go ahead and watch it this Saturday. Oh, and if I could go ahead and get them to re-watch it on Sunday too, that'd be great.

It's one of my favourite films. The weird thing is I watched it before going to college and now I am working for several years it still feels super-relevant to the modern workplace.

Same and same. The longer I work as a dev and the more times I watch it the funnier it gets.

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

#579

Post by nullsense »

cblconfederate wrote: post #250
nullsense wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I like my bus ride. I lose valuable time when I work from home.

Seems like an odd thing to do for that. I take a short drive each morning to get my coffee and then come back home. It's my meditation/alone time/change of scenery and i get to continue my day working uninterrupted at home. People think that the things they do at the office (beyond work) are impossible to replace in "real life". They are, office is the actual virtual life

I study on the bus because it's the perfect environment for it to me. I'm on the bus, so I can't do anything else. I'm on the bus so there isn't any expectation that I'm working nor can I change when I get to get to work. My mind is just at ease that there is this naturally occurring block of time with the perfect conditions to help me accomplish an important goal of the day without impinging on any other part of my day and that is solidly baked into the routine in a very stable way that doesn't require me to exercise any executive function to ensure it happens.

My bus ride is very valuable to me for this reason.

Try as I might, on the WFH days I virtually always wind up doing this same block of study after 10pm which is my free time.

I also get interrupted just as much regardless of whether I'm at home or in the office, so that's kind of a moot point in my particular case.

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