Comments on: Google Redesigns the Office for Gen Z and a Post-pandemic Era https://www.sanjoseinside.com/silicon-valley/google-redesigns-the-office-for-gen-z-and-a-post-pandemic-era/ A look inside San Jose politics and culture Tue, 18 Jul 2023 12:34:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6.12 By: Sebastian https://www.sanjoseinside.com/silicon-valley/google-redesigns-the-office-for-gen-z-and-a-post-pandemic-era/#comment-1780721 Tue, 18 Jul 2023 12:34:27 +0000 https://www.sanjoseinside.com/?p=201170708#comment-1780721 I actually think that guys at Google do the best they can. They can’t make 100% of employees happy about the office space. But working in the office after these years feels nice. Meeting people, talking to them live, coffee breaks, weekly office parties etc. I actually miss that. Plus, the productivity at the office now is much higher. Personally, I am the kind of person that likes my tasks to be done as quickly as possible. Then I have the feeling that I deserve my rest after working hours. At home, I had a feeling that I’m constantly at work. Get up at work, go to sleep at work. That sucks.
At the beginning of 2023, we returned to our coworking space Stockholm. It was really great to meet my coworkers. At first, we talked more than worked. Now, it is all back to normal. And our boss is giving us time to adapt and allows us to work from home without pre-approval.
I think that the success of a hybrid working model depends more on people rather than Pods, new interior design solutions, etc.

]]> By: agree https://www.sanjoseinside.com/silicon-valley/google-redesigns-the-office-for-gen-z-and-a-post-pandemic-era/#comment-1701073 Sun, 02 May 2021 03:45:28 +0000 https://www.sanjoseinside.com/?p=201170708#comment-1701073 Google marketing people: you forgot to include african american and hispanic workers in the photos. It would be a better image if you could at least pretend. I know you can at least do that because the 2 bottom pictures they are pretending to work at the computers that are not turned on.

]]> By: Robert Cortese https://www.sanjoseinside.com/silicon-valley/google-redesigns-the-office-for-gen-z-and-a-post-pandemic-era/#comment-1701072 Sun, 02 May 2021 03:34:12 +0000 https://www.sanjoseinside.com/?p=201170708#comment-1701072 These “Open Workplace” concepts have been around since Hewlett Packard introduced cubicles in the 60’s. Well before I was born. I think it’s more of the “newschool” willing to suffer more indignity on the job than the “oldschool” is willing to put up with.

As far as Pharan Hotel, no thank you. Reminds me of a similarly shaped “Newschool” concept. I guess when the newschool want to work somewhere that reminds them of their happy place.

https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0a/24/c6/28/playground-mcdonald-s.jpg

]]> By: Not Suckered https://www.sanjoseinside.com/silicon-valley/google-redesigns-the-office-for-gen-z-and-a-post-pandemic-era/#comment-1701062 Sat, 01 May 2021 23:26:00 +0000 https://www.sanjoseinside.com/?p=201170708#comment-1701062 Old school people would welcome the revival of real offices as well as meeting rooms, not open concepts and bull pen equivalents or what are variations on them. I’m not surprised you’re doing better in a government setting.

What we see here with pods, in the article, or with other concepts like GPod, could also be done with pipe housing used for other things. See below for actually a fabulous job done with pipes (Prahran Hotel in Melbourne). This could work for super-small housing, dormitories, and is also possible for offices or some group meetings, including the stacking employed at Prahran with today’s tech and its labor in today’s tech buildings.

Other features in this article are cost-saving, indeed, and I have seen even smaller individual, or desk, areas (smaller than real cubicles) profferred.
Eliminating the (cost of) food and services on-site can be said to boost local businesses, promote a more urbanist local environment, whatever PR works best, such as in the new village project in San Jose.

Use your phone, not company facilities, to browse. Aside from ethics, it could be more serious, and the main point is: You don’t need others to see your monitor(s) in order to be seen.

Here is pipe use for small compartments, stellar example as model, Prahran. If these faced a campus environment outside rather than an ordinary street…

techneDOTcomDOTauSLASHprahran-hotel

]]> By: Robert Cortese https://www.sanjoseinside.com/silicon-valley/google-redesigns-the-office-for-gen-z-and-a-post-pandemic-era/#comment-1701058 Sat, 01 May 2021 22:17:46 +0000 https://www.sanjoseinside.com/?p=201170708#comment-1701058 For most of my life I worked in cubicles, and at once point an “Open Office” with 300+ employees crammed into the old Facebook HQ at 1050 Page Mill Road. I now work for the governement, in offices with real doors that close.

I would never go back to cubes, and would certainly never go back to open offices by choice.

Modern cubes and open offices are designed so that your screen faces outward, so anyone walking by can see what is on it. This design is intentional, so people will always have that fear that if they are caught having anything but work up on their screens they’ll get reprimanded (and they do sometimes)

There’s also the distraction of noise. You can’t really concentrate with 300 other people in a wallless warehouse barbling like a bunch of hens in a house. I don’t care about what was on TV last night, I don’t care what latest social justice cause you’re working on, I just want to be left alone to close tickets in service now, or Jira, or whatever we’re using to track work.

Finally, there’s the health risk. It’s funny working in IT, because you can actually see AP utilization go down with the spread of a flu. You can replay it across a timespan of weeks, and get a pretty good idea of how a virus unencumbered by walls or HVAC systems tore through a company.

For the last year I’ve worked a 50% telework schedule, week on, week off. I share my office with someone on an alternate schedule. We basically have the office to ourselves. Our door closes. We have a nice view outside. I’m also the top ticket closer in the department since this switch was made. I can concentrate on work, and not on the sophomoric prattling of others. I get to work a half hour early, I close my door, I close all my tickets, I grab unassigned ones and close them out too. I take my breaks whenever I feel like, maybe browse youtube or facebook then I get back to work.

The only people that like open concepts are old school managers that can’t follow metrics, and shareholders that like seeing a better bottom line without so much money being spent on walls and furniture.. As far as everything google is changing, (Closing gyms, massages, grab and go food) it seems more like a cost saving measure using covid as an excuse.

Maybe not everyone can work better socially isolated, but the ones that can will work better than the ones that can’t.

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