Wow, I never would have pegged Google as the one to go this direction, they used to be such a progressive company, now they’ve thrown in their hats with old fogies JPMorgan, Citibank, and Goldmen Sachs. Is this the part where we start rueing?
Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
731–740 of 1001 posts
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#732I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…
Well, you're certainly free to work the "old way"
Just don't be surprised when your colleagues leave for more flexible companies that don't feel the need to control their employees like they're in kindergarden
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#733Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is why hybrid doesn’t work, and back to the office will win for most companies.
I think you'll lose some talented employees if you don't allow WFH. I think it will take time to see how this plays out.
I think you’re right, because many employees prefer wfh. But I think for companies and esp startups wfh is a big loss, so that losing some employees is worth it. And if the bubble pops things will change.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#734Earlier quoted context omitted.
Despite not making any sense, cost of living adjustments based on your location seem to be the trend that we are heading toward. If you contribute the same work, it seems that it shouldn't matter where you are located, but companies are sociopathic by nature and will reduce costs anywhere they can get away with it. This opens the door to the next step of having salaries match the lowest common denominator - if you ca…
You remember complaints about the busses in San Francisco? There are lots of areas that are having difficulty with gentrification and the associated difficulty of actually being able to hire people to work the service jobs in those areas. A company that is paying significantly more than exacerbates the inequities in those areas. A big tech company having remote workers living like royalty in places as the cost of hou…
Sounds reasonable but I highly doubt that this is the reason for lower pay in low cost of living locations.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#735Wow, I never would have pegged Google as the one to go this direction, they used to be such a progressive company, now they’ve thrown in their hats with old fogies JPMorgan, Citibank, and Goldmen Sachs. Is this the part where we start rueing?
Google spent 2 decades raving about the office, its perks, the "slides", how it re-creates the campus environment. Google made the office a huge part of its identity so this shouldn't be surprising.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#736I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…
When someone tapped my shoulder in the office, they often started to whine about their problem without providing any actionable information, wasted a lot of my time this way, then I tell them to send me an email with a description of the problem - that ends up actionable.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#737Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, some people hate onboarding on a new company as a remote person and so on and so on. My team has been able to hire people from all across the country, gaining access to talent that we normally would not have been able to reach. Because my entire company has gone fully remote, if someone on the team has to take a trip overseas, they can choose to…
Yeah i joked with my team the next step will be asynchronous teams where teams could be spread over US and EU etc. I love my solo lunchbreak walk just to empty my head or just think instead of having to talk or interact with team members.
My team is mostly in office, but we do have people in 2 other time zones.
Communication happens mostly in slack (even for people in the office - because it would be too loud otherwise - open plan office, gggrr), but also to include people not in the office. I think having remote people in various time zones is fine, as long as we can "get together" once in a while. We do virtual board game night (well, afternoon for most of us) once a week, and of course, do sprint reviews and planning together.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#738Earlier quoted context omitted.
Despite not making any sense, cost of living adjustments based on your location seem to be the trend that we are heading toward. If you contribute the same work, it seems that it shouldn't matter where you are located, but companies are sociopathic by nature and will reduce costs anywhere they can get away with it. This opens the door to the next step of having salaries match the lowest common denominator - if you ca…
If you are shopping for a used car do you expect the price to be the same across the entire country? No. Each region will have its own supply and demand that affect prices. Employees are no different. If Google can find enough qualified people in Ohio for 80% of the salary, that’s the cost of an employee in Ohio. Just because it’s more in CA doesn’t change that.
The reason car prices differ based on location is because it's resource intensive to buy a cheaper car from a distant location, so you only compete with locals on price. This is not the case with developers. Once a worker is remote, there is not much difference if they are 80 miles away or 3000 miles away. The reason for the salary difference is because the company can get away with it, rather than a factor of the local market.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#739I think anyone who's claiming that remote work has been "proven" to be better or worse is wrong. There are some studies but they use estimations and proxies, carrying the same flaws as doing performance reviews based on lines of code. We've proven that the big tech companies can go fully remote and not completely crash and burn, that's about it. Some people love the lack of commute and less semi-forced hanging out, s…
Except you're also affecting the individual productivity of others. The tap on the shoulder is the most annoying thing working on site. There's no respect for the urgent & critical tasks. You would want others to spend 2 hours commuting, wasting time on parking, food & fuel just to be able to physically speak to them. What a waste of our current technological advantages. Why bother working in tech, when you don't use…
I had a collegue who would literary tap me on the shoulder. It was a loud open office so I had noise cancelling headphones.
It was insanely annoying. And when I told him to please stop, he started to wave his hand in my peripheral vision.
I pretty much gave up trying to make him behave. I mean those headphones are not that good you can just speak ...
Just the risk of such things makes it hard for me to concentrate. They need not have to happen, just that they could is enough.
I think it is the walking up behind me on row desks that is the problem. I have a private office now with my side to the door and in no way I feel the same.
Re: Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4
#740Earlier quoted context omitted.
I get paired programming is cool, but honestly you can do it perfectly on zoom thanks to screen sharing with multiple participants. Its easier to have their screen on your screen right next to your screen thats on their screen than to huddle together clumsily with two laptops. Sometimes I'll have "office hours" on zoom, where I will just sit in my zoom room and work on my stuff and if people want to hop in and 'tap m…
In my experience I find pair programming with collaborative tools like VSCode's "Liveshare" [], paired with audio-only call (Slack huddle, Google meet, what have you), far superior than in person pair programming. [] https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/services/live-share/
I executed an entire project which was pretty much non-stop pair programming over Zoom and Teamviewer. Was the most productive I've ever been on that particular system, and trying to physically be in the same room would've only been a negative.