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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

#81

Post by gwfhta »

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…

My employer expects that I live in the Bay Area, but does not pay enough that I can afford to:

#1. Move out of my apartment into a bigger apartment with a dedicated home office.

#2. Move out of my rented apartment into a home that I own and could upgrade with soundproofing.

The cost of this would far exceed $30k. My primary goal now (barring get an unexpected huge end-of-year raise) is to move to a satellite office of my current company or work for a company outside the Bay Area. I’ve spent the past few months outside the Bay Area, and I can’t really imagine moving back next year. The cost of houses rose so much faster than my salary, it just makes no sense.

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

#82

Post by withinboredom »

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…

Automatic does some of this. They reimbursed my office chair, stand/sit desk, desk lamp, monitor, router, headset for calls, and keyboard/mouse. All total it was probably less than 10k (the monitor being the bulk of it).

> then the entire team or meeting is remote.

There’s nothing more annoying than having a remote meeting with people sharing an audio device. The quality is terrible.

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

#83

Post by bloqs »

Personality is an absurdly huge component.

Trait concienciousness as per the Big Five model is inherently a social thing. Being more diligent is connected to being more in tune with others around you.

Extroverts are also much more receptive to reward than introverts. This is partially relevant but frames the differences.

Going into the office and cnfronting your "duty" within the social environment of work has a psychological impact. How much depends on how polarised your traits are

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

#84

Post by kyleee »

tidepod12 wrote: post #76
thurn wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wee…

Honestly sounds like a failure of management if slackers are able to keep up appearances for long enough to cripple entire team efforts.

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

#85

Post by gerash »

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…

One upside of running errands in the middle of the day is most businesses close when your work hours ends so taking care of random tasks midday is sometimes the only option

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

#86

Post by tidepod12 »

kyleee wrote: post #84
tidepod12 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 wee…

Honestly sounds like a failure of management if slackers are able to keep up appearances for long enough to cripple entire team efforts.

It has nothing to do with "keeping up appearances". The slackers are easily and quickly identified (usually just from the indicator that they chose to WFH 100% of the time). The problem is that, as I mentioned, it is ridiculously hard to remotely correct a slacker situation even after it has been identified.

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

#87

Post by longtimegoogler »

My productivity has soared as measured by things like like lines of codes, CL submitted, and Design Docs written.

For heads down coding, WFH is much better. I hate open offices and find cross-talk distracting.

For certain types of collaborative work, it is less great and, socially, I miss face to face contact with coworkers. But, I long term, I would prefer to work in an environment where at least several days a week are remote.

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

#88

Post by tylerhou »

marta_morena_28 wrote: post #75
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 c…

> 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?

You joke, but some people are like this. While I think Google should make accommodations, especially for parents, some people ask for way too much...

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

#89

Post by alisonkisk »

Waterluvian wrote: post #49

Imagine if the future of the FAANG style interview focused on how good you are at working from home. I wonder it the outcome would be frustratingly different for many of those who are not too great at it. I think we should embrace WFH but not wholly adopt it as the one and only way people are effective at their job.

They haven't substantially changed the interview format in 20 years; I doubt they'll change now.

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

#90

Post by username90 »

rightbyte wrote: post #51
londons_explore wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a survey, and they quote the figures right there in the article...

They don't quote all the answers. Only the "high" answers. "only 31% of the company’s engineers polled felt they had been highly productive, down 8 percentage points from a record high in the March quarter." So 8 points down from a record. What is the usual variance on that statistics? Doesn't say much. And like ... are employees really honest when asked 'anonymously' by a surveilence company how much they work?

They ask the same question regularly, statistically significant changes in answers are very noticeable. Also if people really liked WFH wouldn't they say they were more productive now to try to alter future decisions? But instead people choose to answer that they are less productive.
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