Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other offices from April 4

Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by jmacd on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @07:38PM (#30535570)

I once flew in to the Bay Area from Europe for several meetings, but the most important one was with a team at Google. We were trying to finalize a deal and they really needed to be on board.

I arrived, checked in and was shown to a meeting room. A few minutes after the meeting was supposed to start the receptionist came scurrying in and connected me to the meeting via that cube looking meeting machine they had in every office. Everyone appeared on the screen from various different offices, some at home, and one person in the same building as me.

I regretted that trip the entire flight home.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by JamesUtah07 on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:34PM (#30535989)

When I worked as contractor I was flown out to an office in London. They paid for all the tickets and hotels for two weeks. They said it was critical to have us in the office. After the first 1 hour introduction meeting I never saw them again. Massive waste of money on their end but I had a great time experiencing a new country and even took a weekend trip to Brussels which was awesome.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by mberning on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:51PM (#30536111)

When we had an acquisition of a major European company we had multiple people from our team flying to Paris, Budapest, and some city in Switzerland multiple times per month for the better part of a year. What a time to be alive.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by devoutsalsa on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:11PM (#30535827)

I got a job that was onsite. On the first day I learned no one in my team worked in the same office.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by MattGaiser on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:50PM (#30536104)

My old company is this way. You can work from any of several offices, but work from the office you must.

So even when I went in, I never dealt with team members.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by bsimpson on Thursday March 03, 2022 @01:42AM (#30537896)

I was the only person in the SF office for an eBay team in Portland. The other CA people didn't bother coming into the office.

That was the loneliest job I've ever had. I was alone in a bank of desks, basically every day. The nearest group of people had nothing to do with my team.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by vanilla_nut on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @10:01PM (#30536610)

Couldn't you just... work from home, and pretend to be at an office? Unlikely that anyone would ever notice...

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by MattGaiser on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @11:45PM (#30537256)

I got caught doing this, but yes, I tried many times.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by devoutsalsa on Thursday March 03, 2022 @01:25AM (#30537822)

I worked from home on that job for weeks at a time and no one said anything. The funny thing was that when I was at the office, anytime I needed to speak w/ anyone, I had to leave my desk and find a quiet place. It was inane. The only upside was the free Diet Dr. Pepper.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by bsimpson on Thursday March 03, 2022 @02:30PM (#30545582)

That's why it's silly to have policies about who is where when.

When people are camping in meeting rooms all day, you have no idea who's "in" just by skimming the seating.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by zionic on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @09:01PM (#30536193)

CIG? Lol

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by MattGaiser on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @11:00PM (#30537012)

AltaML, haha

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by buzzert on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:21PM (#30535906)

You should've budgeted some time to see the sights on the weekend, at least! My company is usually fine with letting me stay somewhere over a weekend or two on business trips.

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Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by weq on Wednesday March 02, 2022 @08:15PM (#30535864)

hahah this happened with a new hire this week. We usually bring them in office the first week. This week, that meant they worked alone :)

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