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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

#591

Post by cblconfederate »

nullsense wrote: post #579
cblconfederate wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Have you tried taking the bus while WFH?

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

#592

Post by dudul »

RestlessMind wrote: post #586
dudul wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this claim made very often on HN. Is there any data to back it up?

Let's say ideal data exists in some hypothetical company which will convince you. What would it look like? Asking because this is an area where it will be impossible to get meaningful data unless a big enough company runs an A/B test over a long period of time to measure the impact on career development.

Can't we have data showing career advancement differences between onsite employees and remote employees? I don't understand your attack/sarcasm. We manage to find data to show salary/promotion differences between men and women, or between different races, why not based on the location of the workers?

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

#593

Post by stjohnswarts »

austinjp wrote: post #288
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…

What about those who _do_ want a friendly workplace with some element of social interaction?

Then by all means go into the office and get their element of social interaction together and let the introverts get their stuff done in their preferred environment.

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

#594

Post by stjohnswarts »

pnt12 wrote: post #563
heisenbit wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have joined a company remotely and I don't feel I got slower productive than before. The ability to do pair work is almost enhanced and the fact that everyone is able and willing to be called in to help has accelerated learning and integration in some areas which I found harder in the past. Also keep in mind that it may be slower than with direct in person mentoring but there can also be the opposite of in person m…

Off-topic, but how do you feel about pair programming?

not that guy, but the two times I've had to do it I was miserable. I like getting an assignment and then going off to my cube to do it. To have to constantly be in communication with someone makes my work miserable. I'll gladly send you status at the end of the day, just don't make me ever work that closely with someone again or I'll find a new company.

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

#595

Post by stjohnswarts »

kmlx wrote: post #309
gfxgirl wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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...

Not sure I believe that, I think it was probably drop in profits because of the pandemic. My team has stayed coherent and 75% of us want to continue working from home because we're doing a bit better than last year and productivity and profits are up. There's nothing really special either about us, just a bunch of hardware and embedded engineers working on medical projects using email, webex and slack.

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

#596

Post by RestlessMind »

dudul wrote: post #592
RestlessMind wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say ideal data exists in some hypothetical company which will convince you. What would it look like? Asking because this is an area where it will be impossible to get meaningful data unless a big enough company runs an A/B test over a long period of time to measure the impact on career development.

Can't we have data showing career advancement differences between onsite employees and remote employees? I don't understand your attack/sarcasm. We manage to find data to show salary/promotion differences between men and women, or between different races, why not based on the location of the workers?

How many companies exist which have meaningful representation of onsite vs remote employees at various levels of seniority? Can you please name a few?

FWIW, at one of the FAANGs I worked that, HR shared data (promo rate etc) between HQ vs remote offices. But those were still remote offices and not remote employees who could work from anywhere.

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

#597

Post by dudul »

RestlessMind wrote: post #596
dudul wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we have data showing career advancement differences between onsite employees and remote employees? I don't understand your attack/sarcasm. We manage to find data to show salary/promotion differences between men and women, or between different races, why not based on the location of the workers?

How many companies exist which have meaningful representation of onsite vs remote employees at various levels of seniority? Can you please name a few? FWIW, at one of the FAANGs I worked that, HR shared data (promo rate etc) between HQ vs remote offices. But those were still remote offices and not remote employees who could work from anywhere.

Fine, I'll play along and say that you're right: the data doesn't exist - which btw I never contested, I actually asked if there was any data available to back a claim. It is then equally fantasist to claim that being a remote employee at a hybrid company is either detrimental, neutral or beneficial to career advancement.

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

#598

Post by huebnerob »

mattm wrote: post #501
bluGill wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Work distractions are generally work related. The person at work who closes his door gets more output, but often that isn't the output that is needed. The person who pays attention to work distractions gets less work done total, but more useful work. Home distractions are not the same.

It's a nice thought but is there any evidence of this? I've also heard this quote "If you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But ten years later somehow, you don't quite know what problems are worth working on." In my experience at work, I've seen the opposite. The people most distracted get the least done and it's obvious to everyone…

The whole premise of this line of thought is faulty because everybody seems to assume that you're entirely either a door-open person or a door-closed person.

The point is choice. There are door-open and door-closed times of every day. In an open office, there is no choice, it's door-open always, and that sucks.

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

#599

Post by [deleted] »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #524
dimmke wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultimately, remote is likely going to win out. Most people in the white collar work force are older, have families and live in the burbs. The commute for a lot of them is 1+ hour each way. But what you're saying is legitimate, and it bothers me the amount of people acting like it doesn't matter. American society already isolates people. Work is a big (maybe the biggest) avenue to develop friendships as an adult, just…

>Most people in the white collar work force are older, have families and live in the burbs. Maybe in USA, but my experience in multiple (>5) workspaces in Poland as 28 years old spftware engineer, is that people over 40 are maybe 5% of devs/tech leads.

[deleted]

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

#600

Post by DataJunkie »

JackPoach wrote: post #167

As a person who has first-hand experience working with dedicated Google managers - this is great news. I used to be able to get answers very quickly, but even the simplest issues nowadays can take up to 3 weeks to get resolved. "Everyone is remote, you understand" - is the usual reply. I can any guess how terrible it's for regular businesses that don't have assigned dedicated account managers.

LMAO. You don't deal with anyone at Google.
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