4 ms·

It seems more like its to save money on office real estate and the fees that come with that like cleaning services, security, etc than it is about being employe

by dsgnr 3y ago

It seems more like its to save money on office real estate and the fees that come with that like cleaning services, security, etc than it is about being employee friendly.

lmm 3y ago
Whatever their reasons, the end result sounds good for employees.
- dylan604 3y ago
  if you're not part of the staff being let go
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  Unity is a worldwide company and while the HQ is now in San francisco, the origins lie in Copenhagen. There's physically no way to reasonably make everyone RTO because there are multiple big bases, and Unity was adjusted to telecommuncations well before the pandemic due to that. So I'm not too surprised it chose to size down physical locations when push came to shove, compared to other tech companies in SV doubling down on their billion dollar real estate they built.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >There's physically no way to reasonably make everyone RTO because there are multiple big bases Sure, but from what I saw a lot of these VFX/arts/game studios despite being international, still mandate their teams to be in-office a certain amount of days per week due to the nature of creative work. Especially that certain things like a games or VFX tend to not have their development spread internationally, but are usually developed by only a certain branch office, in which case some days of in-person collaboration might be more productive.
    - johnnyanmac 3y ago
      Yeah, games are in a weird place because console dev kits were paranoid as all hell when it came to usage. There'd be office mandates purely because you couldn't take those home, nor even remote into one without a bunch of red tape. There's still remnants of that to this day, which is probably why they couldn't be even more aggressive on remote status. That is fortunately one big thing loosened over COVID, though; could never imagine having a devkit in my own house before 2020. ---- can't speak too much for the vfx industry. I imagine its similar culture and NDA contracts in terms of where content can "stay".
      - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        Devkits have been software locked for a while now and need an always on internet connectivity to the mothership to work, so even if the HW kit would leak onto e-bay, there's nothing you can do with them as they would immediately be backlisted and usually that leads to the studio being blacklisted as well for the blunder so it's natural the studios don't want them to leave the office. You never know which disgruntled employee would rage-quit taking the devkit with him leaving you to deal with the wrath from the console manufacturer. When I was doing some security evaluations on a gaming console it was mandatory to lock the HW samples in a vault at the end of the business day when the last person to leave the office was done with them. Naturally that made WFH impossible even during covid.
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    Any cost cutting measure is silly when they choose to have their HQ in SF over Copenhagen.
    - margorczynski 3y ago
      Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in the world, also the employees are expensive and the candidate pool is smaller. And then there's the timezone issue as I assume most of the leadership is in the US.
      - qwytw 3y ago
        > And then there's the timezone issue as I assume most of the leadership is in the US. Well to be fair that didn't work out that well either... > also the employees Still almost dirt cheap by SF standards.
- MrScruff 3y ago
  Unless like me and many other people I know, you prefer working in an office five days a week.
  - ta1243 3y ago
    I don't even work five days a week!
  - seattle_spring 3y ago
    Luckily for people like you and other people you know, most companies provide this, so please don’t ruin it for the few remaining companies that don’t.
    - MrScruff 3y ago
      Sure, I’m just arguing that limiting how often you can work in the office isn’t inherently a win for all employees.
dralley 3y ago
Jim Whitehurst was always very remote-friendly when he was CEO at Red Hat

by dsgnr 3y ago

It seems more like its to save money on office real estate and the fees that come with that like cleaning services, security, etc than it is about being employee friendly.

lmm 3y ago

Whatever their reasons, the end result sounds good for employees.

dylan604 3y ago
if you're not part of the staff being let go
johnnyanmac 3y ago
Unity is a worldwide company and while the HQ is now in San francisco, the origins lie in Copenhagen. There's physically no way to reasonably make everyone RTO because there are multiple big bases, and Unity was adjusted to telecommuncations well before the pandemic due to that. So I'm not too surprised it chose to size down physical locations when push came to shove, compared to other tech companies in SV doubling down on their billion dollar real estate they built.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  >There's physically no way to reasonably make everyone RTO because there are multiple big bases Sure, but from what I saw a lot of these VFX/arts/game studios despite being international, still mandate their teams to be in-office a certain amount of days per week due to the nature of creative work. Especially that certain things like a games or VFX tend to not have their development spread internationally, but are usually developed by only a certain branch office, in which case some days of in-person collaboration might be more productive.
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    Yeah, games are in a weird place because console dev kits were paranoid as all hell when it came to usage. There'd be office mandates purely because you couldn't take those home, nor even remote into one without a bunch of red tape. There's still remnants of that to this day, which is probably why they couldn't be even more aggressive on remote status. That is fortunately one big thing loosened over COVID, though; could never imagine having a devkit in my own house before 2020. ---- can't speak too much for the vfx industry. I imagine its similar culture and NDA contracts in terms of where content can "stay".
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      Devkits have been software locked for a while now and need an always on internet connectivity to the mothership to work, so even if the HW kit would leak onto e-bay, there's nothing you can do with them as they would immediately be backlisted and usually that leads to the studio being blacklisted as well for the blunder so it's natural the studios don't want them to leave the office. You never know which disgruntled employee would rage-quit taking the devkit with him leaving you to deal with the wrath from the console manufacturer. When I was doing some security evaluations on a gaming console it was mandatory to lock the HW samples in a vault at the end of the business day when the last person to leave the office was done with them. Naturally that made WFH impossible even during covid.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  Any cost cutting measure is silly when they choose to have their HQ in SF over Copenhagen.
  - margorczynski 3y ago
    Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in the world, also the employees are expensive and the candidate pool is smaller. And then there's the timezone issue as I assume most of the leadership is in the US.
    - qwytw 3y ago
      > And then there's the timezone issue as I assume most of the leadership is in the US. Well to be fair that didn't work out that well either... > also the employees Still almost dirt cheap by SF standards.
MrScruff 3y ago
Unless like me and many other people I know, you prefer working in an office five days a week.
- ta1243 3y ago
  I don't even work five days a week!
- seattle_spring 3y ago
  Luckily for people like you and other people you know, most companies provide this, so please don’t ruin it for the few remaining companies that don’t.
  - MrScruff 3y ago
    Sure, I’m just arguing that limiting how often you can work in the office isn’t inherently a win for all employees.

dralley 3y ago

Jim Whitehurst was always very remote-friendly when he was CEO at Red Hat