Google delays mandatory return to office beyond Jan. 10

Re:Google delays mandatory return to office beyond Jan. 10 by unmole on Monday December 06, 2021 @10:35AM (#29460970)

> What you're suggesting here is go catch a very serious case of covid and nearly die

Can you please point to where I made such a suggestion? You are arguing against a straw man. My comment was in response to your attempt at scapegoating:

> But I hope we agree that anti-vaxxers suck. And they are providing a pool for the virus to evolve past the vaccines

To repeat myself, unvaccinated people will eventually catch the virus and in the overwhelming majority of the cases recover and develop potent and robust immunity against future infection. Apart from possibly putting strain on hospitals, they are not a threat to your health.

> All of that is pre-omicron which seems evolved to evade vaccines.

This is speculation bordering on fearmongering. There is hardly any data on efficacy of vaccines against Omicron. Although there is some preliminary evidence that reinfection rate due to Omicron is higher: A whopping 1.27%. Which is again, much lower than the rate of breakthrough infections.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.21266068v...

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Re:Google delays mandatory return to office beyond Jan. 10 by varelse on Monday December 06, 2021 @05:12PM (#29466368)

There is a very unambiguous clean definition of the end of the pandemic whereupon it has literally become "just like the flu" and that is where in the United States there are no more than 100 daily deaths on average for 60+ days. Adjust accordingly for wherever you live. Until then, you'll just have to adjust to annoying people like myself valuing self-preservation over stock market indices and looking busy in poorly ventilated spaces. Do try to come terms with that and especially people around you demanding that. We have come nowhere near that benchmark...

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Re:Google delays mandatory return to office beyond Jan. 10 by varelse on Monday December 06, 2021 @12:10PM (#29462433)

We're 10 days into omicron we have nowhere near enough data. But you're the one talking about long-term immunity and long-term immunity is proportional to the severity of infection. You are free to take any risks you wish to take.

If my employer wishes to pay the total cost for risking my health to work in a closed space for the sake of looking busy, and in the event of a hospitalization they will agree in writing to pay 100% of the uninsured costs, plus take out a $10 million life insurance policy in the event of my demise, I still wouldn't take the deal because I don't hate myself. But I do hate the tech sorts that think bringing everyone back into the office wearing masks all day is a good idea right now. Even Google's leadership knows that's a bad idea. Just more arguments in favor of not going to startups led by sociopathic TLAs for crumbs of the equity pie when you can make six to seven figures working for the big guys.

Further, I doubt any employer would take that deal above. They know that once you factor in the total cost it's a terrible risk. Just like unless you're a TLA at a startup you're taking a really bad deal with less than 2% equity. But you wouldn't believe that listening to any TLA sitting pretty with 5 to 25% of the pie telling you why they're going to be just like FAANG one day.

I'm a strong believer in attaching dollar figures to decisions and I know these CEOs are not continuing to allow working from home out of the goodness of their hearts. You may choose to believe otherwise of course

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