Home
Starting Up
Case Studies DB
Products
Ideas DB
Vibe Coding Tools
Subscribe to IH+
Starting Up
Case Studies
Ideas DB
Products DB
Sign in
Join
9
Likes
13
Comments
Ex-Google CEO wants management back in the office...or else
by
Anurag Ajoomal
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-on-why-people-should-return-to-the-office.html
I don't understand why they are pushing this. Most of the people perform better when they work from home.
They do until they don't. Some people work better at home, majority of people work better from offices.
The increase in productivity when someone goes remote is temporary.
It also creates a huge bunch of problems.
IndieHackers usually like working from home/remote, so for us, it's a win!
But there are too many people that try to do absolute minimum at work.
And once the initial novelty wears off the remote work, the amount of people that just want to fly under the radar increases dramatically.
I agree that most people are more productive when working from home. There is definitely a loss of team cohesion, culture, and social interaction, however. From an individual standpoint, those are "acceptable losses". From the company perspective, they are unacceptable, and once those things are gone, you ain't getting them back.
I believe that we're approaching an inflection point of sorts when it comes to employee–company relations. If we continue on the path of remote work, employees will become more empowered in the relationship. It becomes more of a transactional and contractual relationship.
When we were in the office, things like commute times, the people you worked with, and on-site benefits made a big difference and helped keep you at the place you worked. This benefited companies greatly.
Because of the reduced social ties amongst employees and between employees and the company as a whole, remote employees are more open to jumping from job to job. Companies you work for are more fungible. It really just becomes about the pay, the work experience you gain, and the hours. On-site benefits like free food or social activities go away with remote work. Of course, not everybody cared for those things, but I think they became differentiators, especially for new grads.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I believe tech companies recognize what could happen. They're losing control over their employees if they continue with remote work. However, the genie may already be out of the bottle.
I'm personally never going back into an office. If my current gig tries to get me to come in then I'm leaving. Simple as that.
I just prefer working from home. I don't need to have commute into work, and I can wake up, get my coffee, and just center myself.
Working in the office is a massive waste of time for me. Not to mention that it is impossible to indie hack when I have a boss looking over my shoulder 24/7 who sits right next to me...
I couldn't agree more. I've been very clear with my company that I'm never going back to an office.
I also, happened to move within a few blocks of the office recently because we liked the area. They asked if i'll be coming in to the office now that i'm so close, and I said "nope." lol :D
How does your company manage legal aspect of working from home? For example if you develop side project in the working time, will it be considered company property?
What are the distinctions between your personal projects and company tasks legal-wise?
I actually use my personal computers for all work including my salaried position, which means i'm never using company equipment for anything. I started as a contractor so there was never an expectation that I would use their computers.
My team also has devs across most timezones so there are no structured/required work hours. Because of the flexible work schedule, "company time" is really any time i'm working on their code and that's it. The minute I switch to something else, i'm no longer on company time.
In my employee agreement I signed a pretty fair non-compete. It basically says they would own all work that relates to their market / services performed on their time or equipment. That's reasonable. So I just don't use their equipment and work a flexible schedule.
Also when I joined, I let HR know that I have a side project that is very close to their market. I was able to have it specifically excluded from the employment contract. I don't think this was necessary, but seemed easy enough since I was new.
Fair enough! What happens if you come up with a bright idea that could be one of the ecosystem products of your company?
Will it belong to you or to the company?
Hmm, in that case they might have a claim to it. I think if I wanted to build something that might compete with them in the future I would need to leave my job before beginning that work. That seems like the safest path.
If I wanted to play games, my contract says "projects conceived or made by me." I could have my brother email me about his great idea, and then contract out the dev work. Every contract has loopholes :)
I don't really mind going into the office. I get easily bored at home. Being here multiple days in a row also makes it difficult for me to connect with other people outside of the home.
I find I'm happier when I have the chance to interact with other people on a semi-regular basis. And let's face it, Zoom chats are just not a reasonable way for people to get to know one another. It works well at start ups, but in large corporations it devolves quickly.
Working for a large company in tech I felt that there was no reason to go back to the office after working from home for over a year during COVID. When we started a hybrid model I was surprised at how beneficial it was to be in the office. Someone would walk by and start a random conversation that would never happen from home. The first day back someone came into my office to discuss something, after I asked them a couple of questions on a different topic and it led to a two hour, very productive white board session. And that never would have happened over zoom, that type of spontaneous activity doesn't happen as often.
So I do believe people are more productive from home than we expected, but it doesn't replace the benefits of being in person. I feel a hybrid model is best.
I think, generally speaking, introverts perform better working from home, whereas extroverts benefit from the social bonding at the office.
The imposition of at office work, or else, kinda feels like an extrovert's idea of better performance.
These past two years taught us that working from home IS a viable option for a lot of people, certainly not for everyone.
I, for one, can't fathom the idea of going back to the office. I migrated to a home office at the end of 2018, for reasons outside the pandemic. I got to experiment being with my wife during her pregnancy, and now raising my 2 year old daughter, being present every single day of her life.
I MIGHT consider a 9-5 at the office for 4 times my current salary, but even if I did, it would be short term.
Realistically, I will never go back to the office full time.
ex-ceo right?