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Comment by VBprogrammer | Hacker News Reader

We've just done a survey at work to talk about about attitudes to returning to work. The results were basically that 95% of people are happy with work from home but want more social gatherings. Most people would be happy with visiting the office once every two weeks.

I expected a small fraction to be extremely pro return to office but actually these didn't appear at all in our survey. What we did have is a couple of people who said they'd resign before returning to the office on a regular basis.

I wonder how different attitudes are at Google or if this is more of a top down push?

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Top down entirely. It's based entirely on propaganda that Google has the best perks and that serendipitous hallway conversations lead to innovation. Zero evidence that that is the case. And other companies have the same, if not better, perks.

It's been years since I worked there, but I gotta say nothing compares to the Google NYC office in my opinion, as far as offices go. If you know a better office let me know :)

I still know people there, several of whom started going in again as soon as they brought back the big perks like cafes even though it was fully optional.

(The companies I've worked at since then seem to have fewer people going in during this optional period, though still some.)

Yes - this is a component of offices that I think people are skipping. Google and some other companies have world class offices and really cater to their employees quite nicely.

I think many here think of an office as an open office with 500 desks crammed together and nothing else. I know those offices - I've worked at plenty. I do not want to go back to that. I've seen what my current work has done for their "renovations". It's soul draining and will be a terrible office environment. Needless to say - I'm looking for a new job because I do want some office time but I don't want a soul sucking office like the ones we currently have at many companies. Google's isn't perfect (and it is huge YMMV - I've seen some that are fantastic and some that are horrific!) but it's usually far better than others. At least there's an option to enjoy some nice perks and office culture! Many places don't have any of that. No activities - no team building - no peer bonding - no anything!

Amazing if you hate people - horrible if you love interacting with new folks.

Mind telling me more about the Google NYC office?

That seems like a high number. Different external surveys I've seen tend to show about 20% wanting to come in five days with a permanent desk, about the same (or a bit more) fully remote, and the rest 2 or 3 days. That's not just developers though.

That 20% slips to 5% in major urban downtowns where average commute is 1 hour and you have to wait for trains in uncomfortable weather.

Cost of extra hour or 90 minutes of child care is also stratospheric.

Do you have data backing that? I definitely agree about super-commuters, but OTOH in NYC: with small apartments and convenient transit commutes, there are some extra reasons to want to go back to the office.

I'm willing to bet the super commuter effect is stronger, but I'd be surprised if it were strong enough to change it to 5%. E.g. almost all my coworkers live close to the office here in NYC.

I don't have data and it probably depends on various factors. Google in Chicago made a definite choice to locate itself 1.4 miles from the commuter train and a 1.2 miles from the main city train lines. But they have a gorgeous office with great cafeteria food and they pay more than anyone else with similar job security and work hours. They also have a shuttle bus, I think.

If they paid average Chicago tech wages and didn't have free healthy meals then they would have had a hard time recruiting to that office location choice even before COVID.

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