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What was the reason GOOG didn't have work from home before March?

by JJMcJ 7y ago

slongfield 7y ago
Because there were hardly any Covid-19 cases in Santa Clara County (where Google is based) before March https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/dashboard.aspx https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/dashboard.aspx
- JJMcJ 7y ago
  I meant, why can Google run now with WFH, but they didn't allow it before. That is, what was the motivation for forbidding WFH?
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Cultural inertia.
  - acituan 7y ago
    Wild but fun speculation: WFH decreases housing prices because people can disperse further. The higher the tenure & seniority within a company, the higher the likelihood of real estate ownership (both primary and rental properties). There is a conflict of interest in having more control on WFH policies and seeing your house not appreciating as much in value or not bringing as much rent. I wasn’t able to find data on this but it is hard to imagine any Bay Area exec not having real estate positions in the area. More realistic reason: Middle management struggles with perceived lack of control and justifying their existence through wider WFH. Their business is their reports, and there is simply less control surface exposed through WFH to them. It is harder to carry out impression management from home. It is simply a higher friction, higher anxiety scenario. Ultimately they influence WFH adoption, whether at team-local levels or upward influence in company-wide decision making.
  - Gibbon1 7y ago
    I can't speak for google but social herd psychology is a thing. And face to face communication is very effective for certain things. As an aside, every type of communication has it's uses. I think bosses in general feel much more in control when using face to face communication because it allows for fine levels of real time back and forth.
leoh 7y ago
This is kind of a weird question, though I don't think it was meant that way. I work at Google, and recommended work (but not mandatory) work from home (which almost everyone I know did), happened way before anyone else. It felt a bit weird doing it, in fact, because everything was still functioning. Even the required WFH felt earlier than everyone else and there was a question in my mind, "will I be one of the only people in my community quarantining?"

What was the reason GOOG didn't have work from home before March?

by JJMcJ 7y ago

What was the reason GOOG didn't have work from home before March?

Because there were hardly any Covid-19 cases in Santa Clara County (where Google is based) before March https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/dashboard.aspx https://www.sccgov.org/sites/covid19/Pages/dashboard.aspx

JJMcJ 7y ago
I meant, why can Google run now with WFH, but they didn't allow it before. That is, what was the motivation for forbidding WFH?
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Cultural inertia.
- acituan 7y ago
  Wild but fun speculation: WFH decreases housing prices because people can disperse further. The higher the tenure & seniority within a company, the higher the likelihood of real estate ownership (both primary and rental properties). There is a conflict of interest in having more control on WFH policies and seeing your house not appreciating as much in value or not bringing as much rent. I wasn’t able to find data on this but it is hard to imagine any Bay Area exec not having real estate positions in the area. More realistic reason: Middle management struggles with perceived lack of control and justifying their existence through wider WFH. Their business is their reports, and there is simply less control surface exposed through WFH to them. It is harder to carry out impression management from home. It is simply a higher friction, higher anxiety scenario. Ultimately they influence WFH adoption, whether at team-local levels or upward influence in company-wide decision making.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  I can't speak for google but social herd psychology is a thing. And face to face communication is very effective for certain things. As an aside, every type of communication has it's uses. I think bosses in general feel much more in control when using face to face communication because it allows for fine levels of real time back and forth.

leoh 7y ago

This is kind of a weird question, though I don't think it was meant that way. I work at Google, and recommended work (but not mandatory) work from home (which almost everyone I know did), happened way before anyone else. It felt a bit weird doing it, in fact, because everything was still functioning. Even the required WFH felt earlier than everyone else and there was a question in my mind, "will I be one of the only people in my community quarantining?"