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Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

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Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#71

Post by steffan »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #66

I get the sense that many employers see WFH as a temporary measure rather than long-term shift. And consequently they're not willing to seriously invest in tools and processes that would make WFH maximally productive. Suppose for example that Google enacted this policy: (1) They reimburse each employee up to $30k to upgrade their home office, including soundproofing. After Google trained local builders on effective s…

I think this a lovely sentiment, but (1) would never get past HR - what do you do with that $30K for a renter? How do you ensure parity between upgrading a high-rise condo in NYC vs. a simple ranch-style house in Kansas? Like a bonus, is the employee on the hook for paying back the $30K if they leave within a few months or a year? What if the employee wants to / has to move? Do you get another $30K if you move within 1 year? 2? 5? Ever?

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#72

Post by thaumasiotes »

steffan wrote: post #71
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #66

I get the sense that many employers see WFH as a temporary measure rather than long-term shift. And consequently they're not willing to seriously invest in tools and processes that would make WFH maximally productive. Suppose for example that Google enacted this policy: (1) They reimburse each employee up to $30k to upgrade their home office, including soundproofing. After Google trained local builders on effective s…

I think this a lovely sentiment, but (1) would never get past HR - what do you do with that $30K for a renter? How do you ensure parity between upgrading a high-rise condo in NYC vs. a simple ranch-style house in Kansas? Like a bonus, is the employee on the hook for paying back the $30K if they leave within a few months or a year? What if the employee wants to / has to move? Do you get another $30K if you move within…

> How do you ensure parity between upgrading a high-rise condo in NYC vs. a simple ranch-style house in Kansas?

One of the advantages of compensating people in kind is that there's no need to do this. If the business need is that people have a quiet space in which to work, then the business can soundproof a space for everyone. That's the relevant type of parity. That it costs more to soundproof the condo in NYC isn't relevant.

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#73

Post by sanderjd »

crx07 wrote: post #70

To what extent is this an actual issue with WFH? COVID has deteriorated my mental health significantly, and the last time my productivity was this low, I was a teenager living with my parents. I've spent the majority of my career working from home, and I suspect this data has little if any relationship to workspaces -- almost everyone I know is bent out of shape right now.

Yep, the study is absolutely confounded by all the unique variables of 2020. The headline should be "Employees Found It Harder To Work From Home During a Cataclysmic Pandemic, Generational Economic Downturn, and Widespread Social Upheaval".

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#74

Post by marcyb5st »

dqpb wrote: post #38

It’s hard the learn anything from this without seeing the data. At the very least I’d like to see what percentage of engineers show coding output decreased, increased, and had no change.

Disclaimer, I work for Google and you can add a +1 to the decreased list :).

Seriously tough, the problem for me is the lack of focus. Being constantly alone (I live on my own) is messing up with my brain. I spend the same amount of time working (perhaps even longer than when at the office), but I cannot stay focused more than 30 minutes / 1h which make things slow.

Additionally, the number of meetings increased and so did the number of one-pagers I have to write to articulate my ideas (before 10 min with a whiteboard would have been even more effective).

On the plus side I dropped ~14kg since the pandemic WFH started due to not having always stocked MicroKitchens with tons of sweets.

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#75

Post by marta_morena_28 »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #66

I get the sense that many employers see WFH as a temporary measure rather than long-term shift. And consequently they're not willing to seriously invest in tools and processes that would make WFH maximally productive. Suppose for example that Google enacted this policy: (1) They reimburse each employee up to $30k to upgrade their home office, including soundproofing. After Google trained local builders on effective s…

(1) Google will train local builders, seriously? Otherwise, lump-sum payment for home office upgrade is probably good. 30k is excessive by any standards. 10k should probably be enough to buy a good monitor, desk, camera, some digital whiteboard, etc. It's unconditional, i.e. it's always 10k, no questions asked.

(2) What for? They just gave you a lump sum. Google is not a builder, its a software company!

(3) ??? How can you come up with this? Why would I work remote, just because someone else works remote. I makes zero sense. This rule would effectively eliminate remote work. If you work remote, it's your business. There should be policies in place to foster inclusion of remote workers. However, there could still be the option for "fully remote teams", which is generally a better choice.

(4) Again, Google is not a builder or telecom service. If you want to work from home, make sure you move to a place with a good internet connection..

Tzzz. Expectations people really have. How about Google also does your laundry, takes care of your child while you WFH, so you don't get distracted and perhaps prepares lunch and pads you on the back after 5pm for a job well done?

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#76

Post by tidepod12 »

thurn wrote: post #48
bicx wrote: post #14

I think the key with working from home is learning to set up and maintain boundaries between home life and work life. I was working from home fulltime for well over a year prior to the pandemic. Prior to that, I went into an open office every day for about 10 years. Overall, if you subtract the time from a 1-hour round-trip commute, distractions from coworkers, and longer lunch breaks I had while going into the offic…

Also the personality type matrix of people who chose to work from home is different from the general population -- of course those people have higher wfh productivity. My wife is the most extroverted person I've ever met, so she's going to have a significantly harder time with remote work than someone who self-selected into it.

>Also the personality type matrix of people who chose to work from home is different from the general population -- of course those people have higher wfh productivity

My experience is the complete opposite. I spent a lot of time at a very large company that has always had a "WFH if you want" policy. By and large, the highly productive people were doing a hybrid work-from-office 3-4 days a week and WFH 1-2 days a week. In contrast, the people who self-selected into always WFH were almost exclusively slackers who took advantage of the situation to watch Netflix or sit at the pool all day and get nothing done.

I know it's just an anecdote, but I think it's important because this is probably what executives are most worried about. It doesn't take very much effort to find people posting on Twitter that they love WFH during COVID because it means they get to sit at the beach all day. I've got people on my own timeline that choose WFH because they see it as a chance to slack off without supervision.

A single slacker on a dev team of 5-10 can completely ruin the team's output, and (speaking from experience) it's really hard to prevent, oversee, or correct a slacker situation remotely. You might say "then fire them if they're a slacker", but once you're at the point where you're ready to fire them, the damage and lost productivity has already been done.

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#77

Post by invalidOrTaken »

bicx wrote: post #14

I think the key with working from home is learning to set up and maintain boundaries between home life and work life. I was working from home fulltime for well over a year prior to the pandemic. Prior to that, I went into an open office every day for about 10 years. Overall, if you subtract the time from a 1-hour round-trip commute, distractions from coworkers, and longer lunch breaks I had while going into the offic…

The boundaries thing is hard, it can fall out of balance in multiple ways---working when you shouldn't be, or not doing so when you should.

Ebb and flow, indeed.

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#78

Post by 0x7265616374 »

Companies really should be making resources available to help folks adapt and succeed remotely. Tools like toggl [1] go a long way in providing structure that is suddenly swept away. Remote work used to be niche, then it was thrust upon the populace.

[1] https://toggl.com/

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#79

Post by missedthecue »

notananthem wrote: post #40

I think its "harder to code during a global pandemic," not "from home"

I don't know... the atmosphere of an office space definitely has an impact on mood and productivity, and provides a great split between work and home life that is too easily blurred in a WFH situation.

Re: Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home

#80

Post by raphlinus »

sanderjd wrote: post #73
crx07 wrote: post #70

To what extent is this an actual issue with WFH? COVID has deteriorated my mental health significantly, and the last time my productivity was this low, I was a teenager living with my parents. I've spent the majority of my career working from home, and I suspect this data has little if any relationship to workspaces -- almost everyone I know is bent out of shape right now.

Yep, the study is absolutely confounded by all the unique variables of 2020. The headline should be "Employees Found It Harder To Work From Home During a Cataclysmic Pandemic, Generational Economic Downturn, and Widespread Social Upheaval".

Not to mention a serious breakdown in the availability of schooling and childcare. This will affect some people a lot more than others, so it should be possible to infer its relative importance.
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