
No telecommuting allowed: Why is Google investing billions in office buildings? - kimsk112
http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-telecommuting-allowed-why-is-google-investing-billions-of-dollars-in-office-buildings/?ftag=COS-05-10aaa0g&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5a7bcc734b73850007e11e1e&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
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WorldMaker
A personal frustration that directly came across for me in two interview
cycles a couple years back with Google was my questions about telecommuting
were all met with consternation (I don't want to live/work in Mountain View),
yet in two interview cycles with something around a dozen people involved, the
majority of actual interviews involved no one actually physically in Mountain
View and several that entirely telecommuted.

Some of that is just the roulette of the draw of the specific teams I
interviewed with in those cycles, but it certainly seemed to send a couple of
clear messages to me: 1) telecommuting is reserved for a specific class of
seniority with seemingly a certain hard-headedness required, 2) Google
recruiters were more than willing to waste my time by flying me all the way
out to Mountain View for 100% virtual interviews, when I could have happily
done all the Google Hangouts work from home. (Also, 3) Google doesn't value my
technical skills, but that's another argument for a different day.)

Sure, it was good to see a bit more of Mountain View since that is where the
Recruiters kept insisting I had to live/work at least for the first few years
(despite the one team being primarily based in New York, and the other in SF),
but it mostly just cemented my opinion that Mountain View is a suburban place
like most other suburbs in America (car commute practically required; not very
walkable/pedestrian friendly) and overall I'd prefer not to be there, because
there are enough suburbs where I already live.

Sorry to rant a bit about it, but I do find some interesting hypocrisy in
Google's views of remote work and work/life balance. Especially to be directly
told that remote work was entirely not an option, but then proceed to be given
so many remote interviews over Hangouts. Seemed a clear "you will do what I
say, not what I do" message.

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mcv
Interesting argument, but personally I'm not a big believer in telecommuting
anymore either. It used to sound great, but in the end, I think I'm more
productive if I work with my team, and that's easier when you're working in
the same physical space together.

On the other hand, the article says Google tested this productivity, and
apparently there's no difference between telecommuting and working in the
office.

~~~
commandlinefan
> same physical space together

But with some sound-blocking partitions, please. (Currently listening to the
guy next to me shout into his speaker phone, trying unsuccessfully to drown it
out with music...)

~~~
sli
Political debates on the dev floor are the bane of my existence. I have
earbuds, but lately I've just started just leaving the room until it's over
and letting the company pay me for the downtime.

I am just extremely allergic to contentious political yakking derailing my
work. So instead of fighting it, I just let them derail it and take an hour
break. I won't pretend like it's the best idea, but I'm still not the one
derailing everyone's flow.

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csense
At a lot of companies, it's hard to telecommute unless you get your foot in
the door by working with them for a while and becoming invaluable, giving you
enough leverage to demand it in the next time you negotiate employment terms.

This is a real shame, since millions of people live in flyover states, and
some of them are probably talented programmers who can't or won't move to tech
hubs for one reason or another. (I'm one of them.)

It's a missed opportunity for tech companies, and it damages the social and
political fabric of our society by isolating the wealth being created by the
technology industry to a few big cities.

