> they’re legitimately seeing the dire condition Google has been finding itself in with the lack of product success and increasing existential threats of LLM’s, the declining health of the open web from which they derive their profits, etc
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And, leaping into action, carrying the banner of innovation, they're declaring their bold vision of the future: getting sneezed on 20 times a day while attending the exact same meetings as before.
Plus, many people get an extra bonus in this future: the addition of 1-3 hours of commute time per day. (Thanks to terrible traffic in every single part of the Bay Area, this is true for many more people than you might imagine.) Time entirely wasted, that neither their family nor their business will benefit from.
The saddest part of this stupidity is that all teams still have to collaborate globally anyway. So everyone's still going to spend time dialing into meetings, fumbling with microphones, and running into A/V issues — except now it'll be compounded by the fact that there'll never be a meeting room available, and all the equipment will be covered in a fine layer of snot from everyone sneezing on everything.
The fundamental issue with the "RTO or not" question is not the debates about the science of productivity. It's simply the fact that any business choosing to spend time on this is already displaying a failure of judgment and lack of focus.
Entire markets are getting overturned by the arrival of AI, and these people are navel-gazing about desk occupancy rates.
I find this kind of debate can be polarizing because people have such different mindsets and perspectives on the world. If you view the office as just a “fine layer of snot”, I can only imagine what you think of the subway, or a mall. But people sneezing and fighting traffic aren’t critiques of the office, they’re critiques of leaving your house and going outside…
We have immune systems for a reason, and fear of illness (without it coming from your doctor) is not a good reason to be against RTO. People get sick all the time, it’s a normal and necessary process to build our natural immunity. I worry about the damage covid did in making people still paranoid about going in public (e.g. people who continue to feel the need to wear masks today without a medical reason).
You imply there’s no value to being in person, but would you really rather catch up with friends over zoom rather than over dinner? Call someone over FaceTime rather than get coffee and go on a walk? Work relationships matter, sharing 3D space allows people to be more creative and collaborative, and companies are recognizing that. Google seems like the last company that would make people come back to the office without doing their homework, there’s clearly data showing that fully remote employees are falling behind.
> Work relationships matter, sharing 3D space allows people to be more creative and collaborative, and companies are recognizing that. Google seems like the last company that would make people come back to the office without doing their homework, there’s clearly data showing that fully remote employees are falling behind.
A couple things I wanted to point out when reading this:
- RTO does not imply sharing a 3D space with those you collaborate with (e.g. distributed teams).
- There is no data that proves that in-person work is more "creative" or "collaborative", simply because it's not measurable.
- You assume Google's intentions to always driven by data rather than appealing to stakeholders.
- RTO is entirely about sharing 3D spaces with those you collaborate, agree that if the team you work directly with is distributed there’s little value to RTO to me, direct team in office and other teams distributed seems more common
- they are not mutually exclusive, I do very much assume google uses data AND appeals to stakeholder value. I don’t hold the view that stakeholder value is purely maximizing productivity, I think google does their homework before making big decisions.
This is an internet comment section. "Going outside" is always an unpopular opinion here. Also, many of the people here are younger, don't have kids, think they never will, think they'll never have to manage people etc.
These aren't going to be particularly productive, unfortunately.
<vent>
And, leaping into action, carrying the banner of innovation, they're declaring their bold vision of the future: getting sneezed on 20 times a day while attending the exact same meetings as before.
Plus, many people get an extra bonus in this future: the addition of 1-3 hours of commute time per day. (Thanks to terrible traffic in every single part of the Bay Area, this is true for many more people than you might imagine.) Time entirely wasted, that neither their family nor their business will benefit from.
The saddest part of this stupidity is that all teams still have to collaborate globally anyway. So everyone's still going to spend time dialing into meetings, fumbling with microphones, and running into A/V issues — except now it'll be compounded by the fact that there'll never be a meeting room available, and all the equipment will be covered in a fine layer of snot from everyone sneezing on everything.
The fundamental issue with the "RTO or not" question is not the debates about the science of productivity. It's simply the fact that any business choosing to spend time on this is already displaying a failure of judgment and lack of focus.
Entire markets are getting overturned by the arrival of AI, and these people are navel-gazing about desk occupancy rates.
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