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Yes, no. They are also a major proponent of open office space, and (at least the group that I worked for was) very intolerant of remote work pre-pandemic. It
by drewg123 3y ago
Yes, no. They are also a major proponent of open office space, and (at least the group that I worked for was) very intolerant of remote work pre-pandemic. It was very grating to see all these showy spaces (cafes, gyms, theaters, climbing walls, ball pits etc) that were featured in the REWS (Google Real Estate and Workplace Services) newsletters, with absolutely no focus on the overcrowded open office spaces that engineers were forced to work in.
I left Google for Netflix mostly because of my inability to work remotely for Google, and the group I work for in Netflix being remote friendly.
- VirusNewbie 3y agoNetflix is one of the few companies that imo, unequivocally have a better culture than Google (despite working for the latter). However, it's a much smaller engineering org so I don't think it would scale as well.
- sanderjd 3y agoYep. In fairness the offices generally have many quiet spaces to escape to, if you are ok working on a laptop.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoHow senior do you have to be generally to get your own bonafide private office?
- sanderjd 3y agoI don't think I ever saw one. The director of the product I worked on (comprising a few hundred people spread across a few offices and countries) sat a few "pods" over from me for awhile. He did have priority use of a 1:1 meeting room though.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoI'm fairly certain I've seen pictures of at least one corner office though, on Google's campus in Mountain View.
- sanderjd 3y agoVery possible! I only went there once, and only went into a couple cafes in the main buildings.
- VirusNewbie 3y agoFrom what I can tell there isn't any company wide rules. In my building there are directors who sit out in the open, some who have private offices. Some non manager software engineers share offices with one or two people, and some managers share an office with someone. Sounds like if an employee really really wants an office, they can be eligible to share one, but it's not the norm. It's actually pretty quiet though in the "cubes" since there are so many meeting rooms to pop into for discussions.
- sanderjd 3y agoI found this even weirder, frankly. Everyone is sitting out there in the open, but it's impolite to talk, and most people have headphones on. Strange vibe to be in a giant room full of people that is basically silent, IMO.