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Comment by underseacables | Hacker News Reader

I travel a lot because I’m in sales, so I’m constantly in and out of the office. I very much want to return to the office, because for me it’s a homebase, where I can connect with my colleagues. It just hasn’t been the same and I feel that my workflow has diminished without the communal nature of the office.

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I don’t travel at all, just a developer in front of a screen 8 hours a day. I very much prefer to stay home and get to work by getting to my desk instead of fighting traffic.

To each their own, but remote work is now a perk that some companies will offer and others won’t, not offering it will effectively cut out a fairly large percent of devs that don’t want to go back.

Similar boat here. When we were still in the office, I would go to a handful of meetings, and then the rest of my actual working time was spent alone in a solo or shared office space. Going forward, a hybrid approach where I could go in a day or two for bigger group meetings and then do my actual work at home would be preferred.

The question is what will be included in the fairly large percent. If you lose this way some good, but you filter all the potential slackers it may leave you with a better pool.

I'm a developer and spending 1-2 hours a day to commute to an office where I have to microwave a lunch, sit in a cubicle all day, and be forced to overhear coworkers talk about inane things while I'm trying to concentrate sounds like hell to me. Working from home has increased my productivity and made work more enjoyable.

Corporate offices were always terrible but when they removed the cubicles for the "open-office plan" was the last straw. Having my own room for work, at home, is the only way to go.

I would rather my kids interrupt me at my home office than having to hear coworkers chatting and eating all day.

You get a whole cubicle?

And that is totally fine. You and anyone who wants to go back to the office should be absolutely allowed to do so! The issue is more with the modest number of folks who prefer to work remotely and prefer not live near a Google campus.

If you are a high performer who has manager/VP level approval to stay remote, why would Google HR force you to move back to a Google office? They should just allow some folks to work full remote if they have support and approval from their managers, but instead Google corporate is saying everyone needs to be close to their office on Sept 1.

To play devil's advocate, managing/being in a team where most people are in the office and a few remote is difficult. There will be a natural tendency to push aside/forget the people remote.

I will be in this position (the only one remote) in a few months when they all go back in the office. I've talked with my manager about it, and we're trying to prepare this, but I'm not sure it is going to work. Also, the commute argument will get worse then. They kinda expect me to come to the office every couple of weeks, and I do not look forward to the 7 hours round trip.

In that case, then your manager could not support you going remote and require you to come back. If that were the case, I would understand (though it would be a bummer for you).

I am saying there are employees at google who a performing well remotely now, their manager/VP support them staying remote, but Google HR is saying they must return to the office anyways. Google should just allows managers/VPs to let employees stay remote if they are good employees and are performing well. Instead they are pushing a one size fits all policy and haven't said anything about possible manager/VP exceptions.

This is how I feel! Some need the office, some don’t. Let them all make the decision for what works best, it will make everyone happier and hopefully additional positive benefits.

So you are getting paid while you are not in the office, but you would make it so that others don’t have that ability?

They weren't saying that. They were just saying that they preferred having an office. I think it's okay to want to have an office. Working from home isn't for everyone.

I pay for my own office because I really need my work space to be separate from my home space, but I understand why others would prefer to not have a commute/be closer to the family/enjoy their creature comforts/etc.

I like offices too, but they are bad in many ways that ought to be acknowledged. To ask those who spend all day writing code to bookend that with an hour long commute each day, because other people enjoy “having a chat” is absurd.

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