5 ms·

Thats quite the leap of judgement, and I'd say its almost certainly not true (and quite possibly the opposite, I know thats been the case for me).

Fnoord 5y ago
Not universally true, indeed. However if you got little children, it is most certainly true.
- mingusrude 5y ago
  Why would it be more productive to work in the office and have the children at day care than working from home and have the children at day care?
  - Fnoord 5y ago
    Daycare? In August? Not here. They got vacation. Daycare's closed. School vacation lasts 6-8 weeks (6 for our's). I do have vacation days left, but not for 6 weeks.
- bodge5000 5y ago
  I can see why you'd think that, but again having worked with many people who do, I don't see a difference. Of course personal experience is far from hard data, but with a lack of decent data to go off on the subject (partially to do with the fact that productivity is a very vague term, with many disagreeing on how it should be measured, especially with the constant number of external factors affecting it), I can only go by what I experience. I also notice those with children think they're being less productive, whereas the rest of the team doesn't actually notice, so that could be a factor. Thats not saying that WFH is beneficial to all, of course not. I think theres a massive range of factors, children of course being one of them, but I think it comes down to the individual, rather than any broad strokes we can attempt to make.
- thegginthesky 5y ago
  This is arguably false. Anecdotally, I have small children at home and worked from home even before the pandemic when my company had an office. I have climbed the corporate leader every evaluation period because of my performance, while coworkers who were exclusively in the office weren't so fortunate. It just goes to show that people are very different and it's impossible to generalize statements based on a single variable (has_children=True)
  - pc86 5y ago
    Are productivity and successfully playing office politics to get a promotion related?
    - thegginthesky 5y ago
      I never had to play office politics, because the opportunities for doing so while doing remote work is close to none. I guess I have the habit of keeping my work documented which helps when I'm asked for proof of anything. But at the same time people can see how much work I do at any time too.
  - Fnoord 5y ago
    I was talking about little/small children, not children in general. I believe the point is true for children in general as well (during vacation / lockdown specifically), but toddlers and babies require a lot of attention and maintenance. Are you responsible for your children? If not, then with regards to work(load) its akin to having no children at all. You say its arguably false, yet ~90% in my team have children (I'm one of the few with toddlers). And the one who doesn't have children split up recently (due to relationship stress, which now lead to more stress, the irony..). Everyone in my team's productivity suffers since they have to work from home. And on top of that, there's another data point: mothers. They get structurally paid less than men and other women.
- matthewowen 5y ago
  Not at all - I use daycare the same whether remote or in the office, as do basically all my coworkers with kids. I do save time tho by only having to travel between two locations rather than three.
saiya-jin 5y ago
In big corporations, especially not the best working ones (tons of internal politics, people ignoring emails/calls etc.), it is unfortunately true for many complex processes. I could achieve before some tasks in 3 mins by just going to respective folks, interrupting them nicely and get the stuff done. Now I am chasing them for a week for same trivial task. May not be an issue at Google, I would expect them to be less dysfunctional then our broken corp, but most multinationals are super far from well oiled machine.
- bodge5000 5y ago
  I'd say its true for some individuals, not corporations. I don't want to give a blanket statement and say everyone works better from home, thats my whole problem with the blanket statement that everyone works better from the office. Give people a choice where they can still do their job either way As for my current position, its certainly not Google, and I wouldn't call it a well oiled machine. Don't get me wrong, its a really nice place to work, but yeh, we have a few of our own problems ;)

Fnoord 5y ago

Not universally true, indeed. However if you got little children, it is most certainly true.

mingusrude 5y ago
Why would it be more productive to work in the office and have the children at day care than working from home and have the children at day care?
- Fnoord 5y ago
  Daycare? In August? Not here. They got vacation. Daycare's closed. School vacation lasts 6-8 weeks (6 for our's). I do have vacation days left, but not for 6 weeks.
bodge5000 5y ago
I can see why you'd think that, but again having worked with many people who do, I don't see a difference. Of course personal experience is far from hard data, but with a lack of decent data to go off on the subject (partially to do with the fact that productivity is a very vague term, with many disagreeing on how it should be measured, especially with the constant number of external factors affecting it), I can only go by what I experience. I also notice those with children think they're being less productive, whereas the rest of the team doesn't actually notice, so that could be a factor. Thats not saying that WFH is beneficial to all, of course not. I think theres a massive range of factors, children of course being one of them, but I think it comes down to the individual, rather than any broad strokes we can attempt to make.
thegginthesky 5y ago
This is arguably false. Anecdotally, I have small children at home and worked from home even before the pandemic when my company had an office. I have climbed the corporate leader every evaluation period because of my performance, while coworkers who were exclusively in the office weren't so fortunate. It just goes to show that people are very different and it's impossible to generalize statements based on a single variable (has_children=True)
- pc86 5y ago
  Are productivity and successfully playing office politics to get a promotion related?
  - thegginthesky 5y ago
    I never had to play office politics, because the opportunities for doing so while doing remote work is close to none. I guess I have the habit of keeping my work documented which helps when I'm asked for proof of anything. But at the same time people can see how much work I do at any time too.
- Fnoord 5y ago
  I was talking about little/small children, not children in general. I believe the point is true for children in general as well (during vacation / lockdown specifically), but toddlers and babies require a lot of attention and maintenance. Are you responsible for your children? If not, then with regards to work(load) its akin to having no children at all. You say its arguably false, yet ~90% in my team have children (I'm one of the few with toddlers). And the one who doesn't have children split up recently (due to relationship stress, which now lead to more stress, the irony..). Everyone in my team's productivity suffers since they have to work from home. And on top of that, there's another data point: mothers. They get structurally paid less than men and other women.
matthewowen 5y ago
Not at all - I use daycare the same whether remote or in the office, as do basically all my coworkers with kids. I do save time tho by only having to travel between two locations rather than three.

saiya-jin 5y ago

In big corporations, especially not the best working ones (tons of internal politics, people ignoring emails/calls etc.), it is unfortunately true for many complex processes. I could achieve before some tasks in 3 mins by just going to respective folks, interrupting them nicely and get the stuff done. Now I am chasing them for a week for same trivial task. May not be an issue at Google, I would expect them to be less dysfunctional then our broken corp, but most multinationals are super far from well oiled machine.

bodge5000 5y ago
I'd say its true for some individuals, not corporations. I don't want to give a blanket statement and say everyone works better from home, thats my whole problem with the blanket statement that everyone works better from the office. Give people a choice where they can still do their job either way As for my current position, its certainly not Google, and I wouldn't call it a well oiled machine. Don't get me wrong, its a really nice place to work, but yeh, we have a few of our own problems ;)