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

Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by DJHenk on Thursday March 03, 2022 @06:55AM (#30539786)

It's all purely anecdotal. I started a new job just when the pandemic hit. It was perfect timing, the lockdown went into effect between my last interview and my first day of work. Like everyone else, the company was not prepared for it. The only advantage they had was that they had a couple of long term contractors from another country.

So I went in and... it worked out really well. Quality of life is fantastic, productivity too. It's like we've never done it another way. For the contractors it was even an improvement, because now they were on the same level as the rest. Based on this experience, we have started to hire people from abroad and whoever wants can stay remote.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by belter on Thursday March 03, 2022 @07:16AM (#30539953)

I cannot think of a reason where onsite would be better than remote.

Advantages of remote:

- 100% focus as long as you have a proper working place.

- Perfect time management as you will interact at planned times and under an agenda.

- No more smells from my colleagues atrocious culinary choices.

- No more being annoyed by sales guys trying to jump the queue for their deal this quarter.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by SpicyLemonZest on Thursday March 03, 2022 @10:39AM (#30542359)

Well, 2 and 4 are also the disadvantages of remote. I've seen multiple projects generating millions of dollars a year that were originally spawned by unplanned interactions without an agenda between engineers and sales guys. You're presuming a working model where your only role is accepting requirements in planning meetings and outputting code that meets them, and a lot of teams don't work that way.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by belter on Thursday March 03, 2022 @11:18AM (#30542927)

All that interactivity can happen over remote meetings no?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by SpicyLemonZest on Friday March 04, 2022 @01:18PM (#30558332)

Not really. Just this week, I had a 15 minute chat with some sales engineers I'd never met before about a possible API extension that they say would help secure multiple deals a year - there's no way they would have scheduled a video call for that and I doubt I would have accepted if they did.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Google mandates workers back to Silicon Valley, other off... by ddingus on Thursday March 03, 2022 @11:04AM (#30542738)

Outside of software dev, there are a ton of scenarios where onsite matters.

Ask anyone in hardware.

Sure, many and myself included here, setup home labs. Those really help, particularly when boards are small and or one can setup or build a test harness or other suitable device.

I currently work a mix, and onsite is needed, but not always.

My current preference is to do both, and my company just moved. We downsized office space, added a common work area, and I have a home lab and another person is building one up now.

Being sick is bot such a big deal.

We all got much better at the various comms tools too.

As for your other items:

Sales people, who are effective, will find ways. (As they should by the way. New money feeds everyone else.)

Point taken on the smells, but for me I don't care.

Perfect time management? Lolol if it works for you, great. Tons of people will struggle with this anyway.

Having a place to focus is all about the workplace. Can be at home, at work, rented... this one is not really an argument for work at home as much as it is workplace advocacy generally.

[ Parent | on HN ]