Google Calendar Will Let You Record Where You're Working To Help Organize Office Meetings (theverge.com) 27
Google is adding an option to its Calendar service to let you show where you're working on any given day of the week, the company has announced. From a report: The feature will start rolling out from August 30th for users on select Google Workspace plans, and will be accessible via Calendar's settings menu alongside its existing working hours options, as well as on the weekly calendar view below where it shows each day's dates. Available work locations include "Office," "Home," "Unspecified," or "Somewhere else."
According to Google, the option is being added so it's "easier to plan in-person collaboration or set expectations in a hybrid workplace." It follows a surge in the popularity of home and hybrid working due to the pandemic. This has meant employees increasingly have to keep track not just of people's working hours, but also their location, when planning in-person meetings and other events. Google Calendar's new feature should help here.
According to Google, the option is being added so it's "easier to plan in-person collaboration or set expectations in a hybrid workplace." It follows a surge in the popularity of home and hybrid working due to the pandemic. This has meant employees increasingly have to keep track not just of people's working hours, but also their location, when planning in-person meetings and other events. Google Calendar's new feature should help here.
It lets you indicate your working hours?! (Score:2)
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It doesn't say WHEN you are working, it says WHERE and when.
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Yea, I mouse over the person's name in Outlook and the company's ActiveDirectory reports their timezone and location.
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Your company's ActiveDirectory knows that next Tuesday and Wednesday you will be in the OFFICE but the remaining days you are at HOME?
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In most of those cases there is no change in timezone. People don't often commute between timezones.
I'm finding it difficult to get excited about a slight improvement that resolves 1% of cases.
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It doesn't have anything to do with timezones. Did you even bother to read the summary? It is to make it easier to set up IN PERSON meetings, which is rather difficult if you don't know when people are physically in the office, regardless of what their 'working hours' are.
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Yeah, for in office we have an interactive map. Which is linked to from the ActiveDirectory data that I mentioned early. It's vital for finding a conference room that is a reasonable distance to everyone. It can take a good 15 minutes to walk between buildings in order to meet in person, so it turns out that most employees find it impractical to bother with such niceties. We've been a teleconference heavy company for the last 10+ years, even back when we were all on site.
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No, dummy, it is to gather more info about you.
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Your company's ActiveDirectory knows that next Tuesday and Wednesday you will be in the OFFICE but the remaining days you are at HOME?
If you put it in your calendar, yes, it does. Outlook has options for setting an event as Free, Busy, Out of Office, or Working Elsewhere.
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actually we have this on our Outlook calendar. It's popular for managers that work in different buildings on different days.
I think it's tedious to set up now, so I'd be for any improvement in the process. But people definitely already try to communicate this information.
Re:It lets you indicate your working hours?! (Score:4, Informative)
Like Microsoft Outlook has done for decades? And probably every other calendaring app before that? But look the Google? Wow, innovation!
Google Calendar does let you specify your working hours, has for many years.
The new feature is about where you're working, not when you're working, mostly so people know which days you're in the office and available for in-person meetings and which days you're working from home. When you respond to meeting invitations you can also specify whether you're attending in-person or via VC.
Obvious board comments (Score:2)
Might as well get it over with:
Google is tracking you
Burglars may use this to track you
Your micromanaging boss will definitely use this to track you.
Re:Obvious board comments (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember folks. We can't have open diagnostics on cars because rapists could use the information to... rape you.
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Whew! (Score:2)
"Unspecified," or "Somewhere else."
So happy to have *both* of those choices. I visit "Somewhere else" pretty often and wouldn't want people to confuse it with "Unspecified". I'd explain it further, but fear a paradox may ensue...
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"Unspecified," or "Somewhere else."
So happy to have *both* of those choices. I visit "Somewhere else" pretty often and wouldn't want people to confuse it with "Unspecified". I'd explain it further, but fear a paradox may ensue...
"Unspecified" means that you haven't indicated a location. "Somewhere else" means that you have indicated a location, but it's neither home nor office.
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"Unspecified," or "Somewhere else."
So happy to have *both* of those choices. I visit "Somewhere else" pretty often and wouldn't want people to confuse it with "Unspecified". I'd explain it further, but fear a paradox may ensue...
"Unspecified" means that you haven't indicated a location. "Somewhere else" means that you have indicated a location, but it's neither home nor office.
Of course if I'm "somewhere else", then my actual location is unspecified ... :-)
such wow (Score:2)
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No, it did (and does) not. It allows you to set 'available' times, but it does not allow you to say WHERE you will be during those times. If I want to set up an in-person meeting, it does me no good to know that the invitees are 'available' certain hours, if they are not in the same place during those hours.
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BFW, Lotus Notes/Domino did this 20 years ago.
Yep, because IBM was pushing its employees to work from home 20 years ago.
On the shitter (Score:2)
Same place as always.
See you on Zoom.
Re: On the shitter (Score:2)
Give google your location (Score:2)
Remote remote remote (Score:2)
My Calendar:
Set location to "Home (remote)"
Set to "Every work day"
Set to "No end date" ....and I'm done.
The rigid functionality treadmill's at it again. (Score:1)
This is what you get, when you limit the power of your software too much in the name of "simplicity" and being a condescending nanny:
You NEED to have "an app for everything" and a new feature for everything.
Because the user can't just configure it himself anymore.
Because you ruined computers, by turning them into fixed-function appliances. Missing the entire damn point. Deliberately.