Google Relaxes Work-From-Home Rules To Let More Staff Be Remote (bloomberg.com) 73
Google is giving its employees more flexibility to work from different locations or entirely from home, taking a more lenient policy as the Alphabet company prepares for a return to office life after the pandemic. From a report: Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai outlined the plan to staff in a note Wednesday morning. The influential Silicon Valley giant, one of the first to send employees home in 2020, has slowly opened its offices, but said its employees can work remotely until September. Google has rearranged offices to create more features for what it calls a "hybrid" return to work. In the email, Pichai said he expects about 60% of Google's staff will work in the office "a few days a week." Another 20% will be able to relocate to other company sites, while the remaining one-fifth can apply to permanently work from home. Google's parent, Alphabet, ended the first quarter just shy of 140,000 direct employees.
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Having Pets at home, as well possibly other family members. The fact that your "office" can have a Window and control the tempature for what is best with you. Be able to listen to music without worrying about someone sneaking up on you.
You can make or break your own routine.
But as I state it, Why do I need to travel for an hour to get to an office, to login into a computer that is located thousands of miles away.
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Because the office allows coworkers to meet and brainstorm in person, and humans have been born, bred, and evolved over millennia to interact in person. How boring -- to interact only with people you choose to interact with. Family or maybe the occasional cur or moggie.
Pets (curs and moggies) aren't a substitute for in-person interaction with other intelligent humans.
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How boring -- to interact only with people you choose to interact with. Family or maybe the occasional cur or moggie.
You sound like a typical religious person trying to force their beliefs and way of life on others.
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No, be reasonable yourself. The difference is genetic, introverts versus extroverts. The introverts content to work from home (be warned career death) versus the extroverts (who use the extroversion to woo the boss career enhancement).
The google are eager for some to work from home, whoop, whoop, whoop, alarm buzzers should be sounding, they are looking to lay people off and the easiest to get rid of are the work from homers, after all, they have already left the office, they are the easiest to have their c
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...humans have been born, bred, and evolved over millennia to interact in person.
And yet ironically enough if Met In Real Life was suddenly a requirement for creating a Facebook friend, most of the world's narcissists would be left with about seventeen friends.
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Are people really Facebook "friends" with many people they've never met? I can only think of two of my 565 "friends" that I haven't met (yet) in person. For me, that's a basic requirement.
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"Pets (curs and moggies) aren't a substitute for in-person interaction with other intelligent humans." - No but they are a great substitute for rude, ignorant morons. I get plenty of interaction when I work from home and it is on my terms.
Re:Homestuck cowardice (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the office allows coworkers to meet and brainstorm in person
Let me just stop you there and tell you what that "brainstorming" looks like to me. Here I am, doing my job trying to get shit done. Then Dave over here, who got his position because his dad plays golf with the CIO, comes into my cubical looking to bounce ideas off me because he's a fuckitall dipshit who has no literal skill in anything except being an intellectual parasite. I answer his questions, because he's not really brainstorming, he's just trying to get an answer to a question that anyone with any infinitesimal amount of background knowledge in the field would know the answers to already.
And then I proceed to spend the next fifteen minutes trying to figure out where the fuck I was on a problem I was working on only to then have dumb fuck project manager come in and ask for the 178,371st time today where we're at on the project. When he knows damn well that the answer is, "Just as soon as you shut the fuck up and let me fucking finish the DDL for the forty-three tables that blah-blah department needs that they keep sending thirty emails a day updating the requirements of the different columns." It's bad enough I have to deal with their constantly shifting demands, but to then have each demand from them be followed up with forty-seven check ups from someone who literally does nothing but check in on me and contributes jack shit to the overall picture, is asking a bit much.
Yes, that's what that "brainstorming" looks like in reality. And people who think they're actually "brainstorming" are the Dave's or project managers of this world.
humans have been born, bred, and evolved over millennia to interact in person
Yeah and we also were hunter-gatherers. So yeah, things change so we don't have to do dumb shit all the time.
How boring to interact only with people you choose to interact with
Oh yeah, that's literally some "I force myself onto people conversationally" screaming right there.
Pets (curs and moggies) aren't a substitute for in-person interaction with other intelligent humans
I'm just going to say that there's a lot of dogs I've met that had way more personality and were way more affable a being to be around than a giga-ton of co-workers I've had to work with.
I mean if there's some people who want to make their workplace a middle schooler's hangout, cool. Have those people go back in, far be it for me to deny them of what they truly want. I live and die by, to each their own, when it comes to my job. I just want to fucking do my job, get my check, and then go do the shit "I want" to do outside the four walls of my office. I mean call me crazy and toss me in a white jacket, but I don't think asking to just be left alone so that I can do my job should be a tall ask. But all the office has been for me is a shit ton of road blocks, watching over the shoulders, and micro-management. So yeah, I'm so glad you've worked at the Mouseion at Alexandria all your life and that it's been the paragon of intellectualism, but the reality is that the vast majority of jobs, in person isn't encouraging "brainstorming" it's just bullshit, that people are learning that they don't actually have to put up with. Sort of like that time someone figured out that they didn't need to go chasing mammoths with Dave and instead they could just till some soil and plant a seed to get roughly the same-ish end result.
And just to round it all out. Yes, there will be people who take advantage of the work from home situation and hurt those who are doing good. But at the same time, the working in the office is just as ripe a place to take advantage of people but just in a different way. Dave!
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I enjoy when OTHERS force themselves on my conversationally, since I'm generally too shy/avoidant to strike up a conversation on my own.
Cool. Then you do the thing I said with the whole:
I mean if there's some people who want to make their workplace a middle schooler's hangout, cool. Have those people go back in, far be it for me to deny them of what they truly want. I live and die by, to each their own, when it comes to my job.
But don't give me this crap of:
humans have been born, bred, and evolved over millennia to interact in person. How boring -- to interact only with people you choose to interact with.
You do you. That's cool. You just need to leave others out the damn picture.
where the governments actually have programs to help facilitate in-person socialization and avoid mass loneliness
Yeah and here's the thing about those programs. They're tailored by specialist to handle that particular situation. I have serious doubt that Mark the project manager has any education in setting up anything remotely like those programs. Like it's one thing to mention those programs, but comparing them to something you might find in the office is
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Actual "brainstorming" can also take place online, and often works much better this way.
Quite often we have unproductive meetings where a new idea is proposed or asked about, but very little feedback or suggestions are made because people were just put on the spot. A few hours later, once people have had chance to fully digest what was presented to them and think about it properly, people have ideas or suggestions which they send via email.
Meanwhile the initial meeting required us to drop what we were doing
These are high level tech workers (Score:2)
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If someone is having issues, in the year of our lord Two Thousand and Twenty One, we have devices called Computers that are connected to the Internet. That allow for Text Communication, as well as Voice and Video. We can even do this with our phone, I have a cheap smart watch where I can still talk to people with my watch, it is like Dick Tracy!
So during my work day, I may get an email, or a Teams chat (as my workplace uses teams) in which I will communicate with people. Help them work out problems, and
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So basically you want the majority of the work-force to change for the worse just so you can get that extra little push. *facepalm*
If you need face time with someone, you put in the extra effort and don't force other so you can be lazy.
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Or if you have problems with social interaction, go and see a professional who can assist with that. Don't expect colleagues to be your free (and untrained) counsellors.
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You can always close your eyes and randomly click someone in the company directory for a video chat...
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Meeting serendipitously at the water cooler and solving a problem is a myth. I've been in my industry for 20 years and I never see it happen. It's not just that it doesn't happen to me, I never see it happen and I only hear about it in abstract terms, where people SAY that it happens, but not that it happened to them. Just that they HEARD that it happened once.
If the way that problems are getting solved is by randos meeting in the hall, or dropping in at your desk, the real problem is that your workplace do
Re: Homestuck cowardice (Score:2)
Depends on the type of work you do, the type of coworkers you have, and how many friends or family you have and also whether you know how to balance your time. I suspect those of us posting on slashdot are skilled in, uh delegation, and not burning out from work if nothing else.
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I suspect those of us posting on slashdot are skilled in, uh delegation,
Indeed, no problems posting on /. regardless if on site or working at home.
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After seeing all of your comments in this thread, I am beginning to believe you are just a freak. If you need human interaction that much, just go work for McDonalds....seriously.
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That is literally the job of managers. To make sure work gets done. No one should expect to be respected in this position because they're the bad guy always making sure things get done.
and extra cash eating out for lunch
And that is the company's how? If you choose to be stupid and go out for lunch every day, that's on you. Those of us who are smart enough to know what a waste of mo
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People really WANT to be stuck at home 10 hours a day with no serendipity, no lunch with co-workers, no random conversations, just routine, routine, routine?
Speaking of routine, you're talking to the same people that before COVID, went to lunch and ate the same sandwich, with the same co-workers, and probably sitting at the same table, for the last decade.
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And that's a pleasant routine, unlike fucking solitary confinement behind a fucking foul stinking screen at home. Fuck WFH.
Just clean your desk once a week and that smell might go away.
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I've worked from home for almost 7 years.
-There is plenty of serendipity, as we know how to use online collaboration tools spontaneously.
-I absolutely love not smelling the odd food of dozens of coworkers either in the cubicles or in the break room, and I eat much cheaper and healthier at home.
-Plenty of random conversations using online tools
-I never know what I'm going to have in a given day. Just this past Monday, I had something jump in my lap totally unexpected that resulted in a full day working that
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I love odd foods. Care and share, have lunch together, try what they eat, let them try what you eat. You may like it.
Oh, I love odd foods as well. That's not the problem.
-I don't want to smell someone's processed tuna & rice they heated in the microwave while I'm already feeling sick to my stomach.
-I don't want to smell popcorn, often burnt, when someone decides to have a mid-afternoon snack
-I don't want to hear someone loudly smacking their lips & chewing with their mouth open in the cubicle next to me.
-I struggle with my weight, and because of my issues with food addiction, I'm going to eat whatever anyone bring
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Re:Homestuck cowardice (Score:5, Insightful)
People really WANT to be stuck at home 10 hours a day with no serendipity, no lunch with co-workers, no random conversations, just routine, routine, routine?
People really WANT to be stuck at work 10 hours a day in a massive cube farm with distracting background noise and random interruptions that mean about half the day is spent actually working? From home I probably work 3/4 the actual time I put in and get more actual work done then in the office, I feel like.
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It's likely it will increase over time, as there are many factors which lessened the benefits.
As people and companies get used to home working, ways will be found to make more efficient use of the time and take advantage of the benefits offered by home working.
Most companies hastily spun up home working facilities and faced initial teething troubles and learning curves, once the systems are tried and tested they will work more smoothly.
People who work from home permanently can better plan for the lifestyle.
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Is your goal to get the most work done in a certain amount of time?
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People really WANT to be stuck at work 10 hours a day in a massive cube farm
Now that I'm in an open-office plan, I LONG for the days of when I used to work in a massive cube farm.
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You are not going to be returning to the office the way it was in 2019. Most likely you will be asked to wear a mask whenever you leave your desk. You will probably have to submit to temperature checks whenever you enter the building. There is a good chance you won't have a dedicated desk - hot desks or "hotelling" (desk sharing) is the new norm. Some companies will probably try and get you to prove that you have had a Covid vaccination, although it's probably a HIPPA violation.
Is that what's you're looking
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Guess I'll be working a job that can't be "homesourced" or outsourced, then. I'd sooner go for my plumbing license or work as a carpenter or mechanic than work from home five days a week.
(Also, I was fully vaccinated several months ago. Having to prove vaccination once is fine by me. So are automated temperature checks, though they're getting less prevalent since accuracy is dubious at best.)
Do you really think that people will be wearing masks forever once 75% of all adults are vaccinated against COVID?
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Literally jumped through fire to get your second dose?
Wow that's some pretty tight security they have. How did you deal with the lions?
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Yeah to each their own. Forever is a long time but I do think that mask mandates are going to go on for a long time. Even if 75% do get vaccinated that still leaves 25% who are not. And the other day I'm reading an article where some are doubting we will ever reach heard immunity.
Even after Covid blows over some other nasty mutation will take its place and then it will be right back to the masks.
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Besides the Spanish Flu, none of those are RNA viruses and have very stable genomes that provide lifetime immunity and rarely mutate.
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8 hours a day. Unless I'm in a position where those extra 2 hours a day increase my chance of a huge payday (e.g. owning double-digit equity), why on earth would I provide free labor?
But I'd much rather earn SV salary without having to actually live in SV/SF.
But I would rather go to a satellite office, because if I have to WFH, I'm going to have to go somewhere outside the house.
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Oh, I want to be in a real city as well. (And I am.) Just not in San Fransisco. I prefer to have the ability to live where I want and work where I want.
But I think a far bigger worry than decoupling forcing people to live in certain places to work there is the hollowing out by AirBnB driving up rents forcing city cores to be unaffordable hellscapes.
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The future. (Score:2)
In the 1970s many middle age men in the US had no work because it was assumed that everyone would be mass pr
What About the Free Food? (Score:2)
Will Google send an award-winning chef to prepare lunch for you if you work from home?
remote Workers (Score:1)
"relaxing rules allowing @home work for most" (Score:3)
This article seems a little like "doublespeak" or "newspeak" in that it seems to talk about relaxing rules to allow more working from home, but instead seems to talk about rescinding the rules that allowed more work from home (when the majority worked from home) to forcing the majority (60%) to work from the office, allowing 20% to transfer to another office location and allowing, (at most) 20% to stay in a (primarily) work-from-home position.
Seems like Google moved toward the mediocrity standard like so many of their high-standard predecessors. They advertise and promote that they only want the top-end of the talent pool -- even throwing IQ tests at potential candidates, then after having it's hand slapped a few times for poaching at local competitors' (apple, intel, et al.) had to start hiring from the mid-bracket (requiring more hand-holding, leadership and managerial staff to encourage similar productivity).
Now they believe that the mid-bracket needs more personal attention to be productive (i.e. needs more time in the office) -- 60%, eh? wow, they had to hire than many from the "mid-bracket"...