Google's push to bring its 165,000 employees back to the office – Fortune | Hacker News Reader

Google's push to bring its 165,000 employees back to the office – Fortune

fortune.com

33 pointsmalshe31 comments

Google employee here, using a throwaway.

In my experience there are very few teams/managers who actually enforce the return to office mandate. No one cares whether you show up, regardless of whether you bother submitting the official WFH application. Based on how many seats I usually see filled, I'd guess that less than 20% of people are actually coming to the office.

Unofficial enforcement wouldn’t help me. I can’t buy a house in a low cost of living area based on the whims of a manager.

This is my #1 nitpick when I hear "no one enforces that" when talking about a company rule or something in the handbook. That's all well and good... today... with my current manager... but I don't want to build my life on such shaky ground. Make it official.

This was my biggest issue with the WFH policy at my last employer, it was 100% manager discretion (in part so they could prevent a few departments from taking advantage while maintaining the "we all follow the same rules regardless of department"-lie). I was taking 2 days a week as WFH but I always knew it could be taken away in an instant and HR tried to soothe me with "It's totally allowed, don't worry about it". Of course I also had issues with it not being extended to the rest of the company and, in what will come as surprise to no one, the whole office went to WFH in 2020 after years of them telling me it couldn't be done.

The initial recruiter who reached out to me about a position could never tell me definitely whether my position would be permanently remote or not. Just when I was about to end the conversation, they recommended I apply for a position that was in a “virtual location”. The only requirement they had was that I need to be somewhere near a major airport and be able to travel.

That hasn’t happen that often yet.

Yeah admittedly it only helps those willing to live near their office, but it's better than nothing.

Interesting read. There was one stat that seemed insane even with the legendary attrition of the tech industry. 1/3 of employees will be going to the office for the first time?? (article says 50K out of 165K new hires during the pandemic). That is an astounding stat. Did Google bloat when rates were low or did they have higher than normal attrition?

Seems they grew a lot ... is this all for the cloud?

Alphabet total number of employees in 2021 was 156,500, a 15.67% increase from 2020.

Alphabet total number of employees in 2020 was 135,301, a 13.79% increase from 2019.

Alphabet total number of employees in 2019 was 118,899, a 20.38% increase from 2018.

Alphabet total number of employees in 2018 was 98,771, a 23.29% increase from 2017

I joined Google ~6 months before COVID. More than 60% the company was hired after my start date, so that 1/3 stat is probably higher.

Oh dear ... that is insane. The institutional continuity has to be so low.

It isn't people leaving. It is stupendously huge growth.

The number is also lower for eng-ftes.

Sibling comment has a good point, this number includes everyone from software engineers to kitchen staff. Very few of my direct peers have left and the Google is growing still.

Big tech has high attrition rates. There are several reasons:

1. Compensation structure. Hiring bonuses are easier to get than equivalent stock grants. So it's common for folks to boomerang around FAANG for 5-10 years.

2. Attrition from industry. If you're a committed DINK and manage your career well, you can semi-retire in your mid 30s.

3. After a few years at FAANG, you can "trade up" to a high-status/high-leverage position outside FAANG without too devastating of a compensation hit (especially relative to CoL).

4. FAANG is kinda brutal for lots of reasons. It's like the day-to-day PITA of enterprise with the competition/politics of a hedge fund after a certain level.

All these murder drones won't program themselves. Pandemic is a good time to hire some unscrupulous devs.

If you prefer an independent Ukraine and Taiwan, you might want to program some murder drones.

I would prefer peace but the empire makes it impossible.

Only because one can do evil things with impunity doesn't make it right. People are people and the murder is murder.

China will attack Taiwan regardless of the existence of the US. The US should help Taiwan to survive.

Didn't one of the higher ups mandate back-to-office while also moving to *checks notes* New Zealand??

Right that would be Urs Hölzle. He's a senior executive who moved to New Zealand to work remotely but opposed remote work for junior employees.

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-exec-reportedly-worki...

I’ve never understood google’s insistence on making everyone sit in the same office. There have been several consolidation pushes over the years.

I’d think smaller distributed teams would be more desirable. Don’t most people work in small-ish groups anyway? Just the logistics of cramming so many people into such a small space are challenging.

The traffic from highway 101 to the googleplex in mountain view is infamous. The highway is wildly oversubscribed, the exits are congested for about 4 hours around the start and end of the work day. (Yes that’s basically constant. There’s a bit of a lull between 11 and 2)

Part of the problem is that Mountain View has refused to build more housing for decades so everyone commutes. That’s been changing slowly (housing projects are finally getting approved), but it can’t possibly be enough.

Why not take the opportunity of covid to decentralize?

Whatever, not my clowns, not my circus. Thank god.

Instead of providing freedom to choose remote vs in office, big techs are repeatedly pushing their own agenda... No wonder why some part of country gets too developed creating imbalanced development.

https://archive.ph/vWdcw

Well that is going to fucking suck

Google also gives the option of fully remote work:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.google/inside-google/life-...

"Remote work: We’ll also offer opportunities for you to apply for completely remote work (away from your team or office) based on your role and team needs. Before the pandemic, we had thousands of people working in locations separate from their core teams. I fully expect those numbers to increase in the coming months as we develop more remote roles, including fully all-remote sub teams. You’ll be able to apply for remote work within your product area or function. As with location transfers, your leads will evaluate whether remote work can support the goals of the team and business. Whether you choose to transfer to a different office or opt for completely remote work, your compensation will be adjusted according to your new location. "

Pretty weak sauce. It's up to your boss, who is encouraged to say no by his superiors. The number approved is a miniscule percentage of the workforce. You'll get a pay cut.

There are so many jobs out there, thousands of companies are now hiring remote. Your google resume entry will help you get good pay and jobs.

Why didn't they call people back in stages, maybe 20% of the workforce each week?

Reminded me other joke. England decided to switch to right hand driving just like everybody else. But in order to ease the transition, they decided to do it in phases. First the buses, then the taxes, and then the passenger cars

"First the buses, then the taxes, and then the passenger cars"

The joke is funnier if you say taxis instead, though.

Here I was, trying to figure out the joke with 'taxes'.

voice typing strikes again

They even have those metal tables and chairs you put in coffee shops that are comfortable enough to sit in for 15 minutes or so but not so comfortable that you'd want to sit around and take up a seat for a paying customer.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com