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(Googler, opinions are my own). I'm also a WSJ subscriber, and saw this notification from WSJ before I checked my email this morning. I think there are 2 imp
by kyrra 6y ago
(Googler, opinions are my own).
I'm also a WSJ subscriber, and saw this notification from WSJ before I checked my email this morning. I think there are 2 important things to take from this for those that didn't/can't read this.
1) From the article: "Mr. Pichai was swayed in part by sympathy for employees with families to plan for uncertain school years that may involve at-home instruction, depending on geography. It also frees staff to sign full-year leases elsewhere if they choose to move."
2) This does not mean offices will remained closed. If Google is able, they will open offices and allow people to return, if employees chose to. This is more about giving people more options.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoThe school year thing is going to be a big deal for a lot of employers. Schools here are either doing full online or "hybrid", where half the time your kid is at home. In either case, working five days a week at the office isn't going to work for a lot of people this year, regardless of the safety of being at the office.
- ryneandal 6y agoMy wife and I have already opted in to the virtual option provided here in South Dakota. I'm diabetic and she's pregnant, thankfully we're in a position where we both work remotely and my employer is incredibly flexible for at-home needs, particularly right now. This whole pandemic situation has really opened up my wife's eyes re: my reasoning for insisting on working remotely.
- tylermac1 6y agoHey fellow South Dakotan. I've been working remotely here for over 5 years. If you want someone to chat with my twitter is tyler_mcentee
- ryneandal 6y agoOh awesome, another Dakotan. We'll have to grab a coffee or something if you're in the SF area.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoThis read really oddly to me as a non-Dakotan. I was like "Why are you asking if he's in the San Francisco area when you're both in South Dakota?" I gather you're referring to Sioux Falls though.
- ryneandal 6y agoHaha yeah, definitely meant Sioux Falls. I can see the ambiguity, sorry about that!
- balls187 6y agoI traveled to Sioux Falls to get LASIK surgery done at VTV. Lovely place.
- ryneandal 6y agoVance Thompson is absolutely incredible. One of the best aspects of living in Sioux Falls is the world-class health care. Glad you enjoyed it here, come back soon, there are some awesome reasons to visit :)
- platetone 6y agoI just finished watching Fargo Season 2 last night... the massacre at Sioux Falls. :)
- fimbulvetr 6y agoSame thing happens with SDSU, normally people are referring to San Diego State Uni, not South Dakota State Uni.
- ISO-morphism 6y ago
- shadowgovt 6y agoTBH depending on circumstances, working five days a week at home also won't work for a lot of people this year. I have family trying to raise two kids during this pandemic. Turns out, children aren't just little adults who will go off and do assigned tasks unsupervised; they require attention and crave personal feedback, and those aren't things they can get from either teachers or peers in a distance-learning configuration. Not in the quantities they get them in school. A lot of working parents are going to find they're splitting their time between their day jobs and keeping their children on their tasks, which will be a huge adjustment for a lot of families (especially families with two working parents who can remote-work). I don't know that the US has a firm understanding of how much the babysitting aspect of regular primary (and in some cases, high school) education adds value, and the whole economy is in for a rude shock come Q42020 / Q12021 as everyone's projections get missed unless companies are writing down goal-hitting expectations right now.
- ryneandal 6y agoI haven't been this exhausted ever. Being productive at work and handling my children's needs throughout the day is unbelievably taxing, leading to Friday nights where I fall asleep with them ~730 and end up sleeping 12 hours. I hope this leads to realization of how important work/life balance is here in the States. This Protestant work ethic simply isn't necessary with today's productivity.
- gabaix 6y agoI am moving to my parents’ city for this exact reason. My wife and I are full time professionals, and we are failing at educating our children.
- ryneandal 6y agoThankfully we live in the same city my parents live in, and they're retired. They've been an absolute godsend.
- shadowgovt 6y agoThe (traditional) Protestant work ethic also assumed a Protestant community centered around a church as cultural / societal hub. Not even the PWE suggested people go all out all the time without community support.
- mrbonner 6y agoWorking from home and help your kids with schoolwork isn’t helping either! I did this from Mar to June and it was exhausting. Along the way I did manage to piss off my kids too by screaming at them for some simple multiplication. I am a bad teacher and I hope I wouldn’t become a bad parent homeschooling them.
- balls187 6y agoAs others have noted, this is going to be rough for most families irrespective of whether workers are allowed to return to work.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- margaretdouglas 6y agoI believe this is consistent with at least one other FAANG company.
- paulpan 6y agoRight on, the keyword here is "optional". Offices will still be open and employees are allowed to return at their choosing. I agree that this decision was probably predicated on 1) no vaccine until next year and 2) schools may be largely closed so emphasis on helping employees with kids.
- dvirsky 6y agoIt's so annoying that this gets misrepresented in all the news stories and discussions about this. I guess the non clickbait headline - "Google will let people WFH for 11 months regardless of offices reopening" is just not as appealing.
- mywittyname 6y agoPeople who hate clickbait headlines should start clicking the non-clickbait headlines. The authors themselves rarely have any control over the headlines and we know that all of the major publications are A/B/n testing various headlines for news, at minimum, and are most likely feeding that information back into some automated headline generator.
- dvirsky 6y agoNot to turn this into a meta discussion of the responsibility of media outlets, but they could have probably gotten better CTR with the headline "Top 10 celebrity boobs". There's a difference between phrasing headlines more dramatically and misrepresenting your story.
- siruncledrew 6y agoDid Google ever site any other factors like a vaccine timeline or forecast of cases in the Fall as contributing reasons to extend WFH until Spring 2021? Just wondering if there is any other interesting data out there pointing to things persisting to be bad until Summer 2021.