The Google Office or How I Eliminated 50% of our Office Space

[scott43]

So anyone here going/gone through a "Google" office reno? Thoughts?

 

[Philpug]

?? Not sure what you are referring to?

 

[Dadskier]

Is your company switching you from Outlook and office apps to all Google?

 

[scott43]

Nah, we're going from "traditional" offices to no offices..basically touch-down spaces, tables and no assigned desk areas. You roll in, see what's available and plunk yerself down. You can put twice as many people in the same square footage..

 

[Monique]

From what I've seen, Google offices don't work that way.

 

[scott43]

From what I've seen, Google offices don't work that way.

Yeah, that's true. I suppose it's a more flexible work area that allows you to use less space. Google has cool stuff and probably lets you design your own office. We're not getting cool stuff..and no office. Anyone gone through a change like this?

 

[raytseng]

you are better off searching for open plan workspace, flexible office agile workspace or which all mean different things.
i think your company has to couple this with a high work-from-home policy and remote teams to justify having the adhoc office spaces. all the tech companies are actually moving the opposite of this and encouraging you to have your personal established cube and come to the office instead.
if you're having touchdown areas but the expectation is everyone still needs to come in mf 9 to 5, then this is recipe for a conflict and failure i think.

 

[JeffB]

We are moving more and more towards the flex office space model. The reasons are many, but include the fact that we increasingly allow and even encourage work from home days for staff, that we all travel a good bit and, as often as not, a substantial percentage of windowed offices are unoccupied on scheduled work days, as well as the general silliness of paying rent for largely unoccupied Class A office space.

I don't know that the migration away from traditional office space will allow us to reduce overall square footage - it probably won't. What we really need is more conference room/meeting room space and to make better use of the space we are obligated to pay for.

The times they are a changin. And that's a good thing in my view.

 

[scott43]

Well to both you and Ray, I think in a similar way. We're doing less space for more people without the extra meeting space or corporate climate to support it so I think it's a bit poorly thought out. But I have to sell it to my peeps somewhat so I'm trying to find out both sides and see if I can intelligently (har-hat) talk about it..

 

[raytseng]

i hope the other parts of remote working are in place and accepted. e.g. usage of instant messaging/slack and virtual presence, people used to taking meetings or having meetings with someone else who might be at home, at a coffeehouse, or on the ski lift and that virtualness does not cause discontentment.
in the company culture, the people should be measured on quantifiable output, and not specifically the face time.
if your company has those things, then the flex office could be a natual progression.

 

[Sibhusky]

I think it's a terrible idea, just like giving conference rooms names instead of addresses, people are going to be wandering around, trying to find where the person they need to talk to is that day, running into people they haven't seen in a while, etc. If they are always in the same "bull pen" and are there on set days, fine, but why even show up at work if you're going to be cruising for a spot everyday?

When I left IBM, they were moving more and more people to home office as I left. I hear they are now telling people they have to show up at the office. This after people moved to all kinds of inconvenient locations and now aren't even near an IBM office.

 

[crgildart]

70% of my giant company collaborates virtually. I haven't had an on site office location or desk since 2009. Everyone is always logged in to an instant message and meeting platform. Anyone in the company can locate me or anyone else vice versa pretty instantly during normal business hours. It's the "normal business hours" that is challenging since we are a global entity.

Face to face?? Everyone who prefers that uses webcams. Other than conference calls, my telephone only rings for work related voice communication maybe once or twice a month.. Everything else is PC based sending and receiving data, reports, and emails.. and the daily chats.. lots of chats..

 

[fatbob]

We've always been open plan but last year moved to a hot desk model except for top bods who still get an assigned desk and storage space rather than a tiny locker to keep peripherals, personal stuff and any paperwork we actually need for work.

Has worked fine for me as I've taken the cue that I'm not actually valued in person to work from home more where I can have a desk, spread out etc. New boss just arrived and some clues he might be a bit of a fan of presenteeism so who knows.

 

[Snowfan]

Self employed since the mid 90's. I've gone from 12, full height steel file cabinets to 4 little ones. Scanning keepers using back-up hard drive, cloud, and Google docs. Tossing post-IRS 'needed' docs and others will reduce me to zero file space except for one tiny plastic current file holder. Next is stand-up desk and mothball fleet the office chair. Takes time but finding simplicity is of great value.

 

[coskigirl]

I have a bit of a hard time envisioning how going to less space, with more people, and no private meeting space is conducive to productivity unless productivity in your environment is dependent upon collaboration. In my world, I struggle with noise outside my office and I have the ability to close the door whenever I chose. I take it there is very little phone work or its done on cell phones?

 

[raytseng]

I have a bit of a hard time envisioning how going to less space, with more people, and no private meeting space is conducive to productivity unless productivity in your environment is dependent upon collaboration. In my world, I struggle with noise outside my office and I have the ability to close the door whenever I chose. I take it there is very little phone work or its done on cell phones?

The "office" is no longer your office, the office is wherever you are, including your home office if that's what you setup. But if you dig into it, productivity comes when the line between the office and personal life becomes blurred as there's no clocking in or clocking out, the human finds their most convenient productive area, and could be working 24/7. If someone gets 1more hour working from home in their PJs or forgets to stop working, that's better for productivity.

However, the tech companies are instead looking for the Creativity and hoping for turbo boosts in output that come from the proximity and unplanned interactions with other humans in person, and are willing to give up productivity for these random boosts.

 

[coskigirl]

The "office" is no longer your office, the office is wherever you are, including your home office if that's what you setup. But if you dig into it, productivity comes when the line between the office and personal life becomes blurred as there's no clocking in or clocking out, the human finds their most convenient productive area, and could be working 24/7. If someone gets 1more hour working from home in their PJs or forgets to stop working, that's better for productivity.

However, the tech companies are instead looking for the Creativity and hoping for turbo boosts in output that come from the unplanned interactions with other humans in person, and are willing to give up productivity for these random boosts.

Yes, I understand what happens when the lines blur. I am often responding to emails late at night or early in the morning. However, I don't see that Scott has confirmed that his team will be allowed to work from home.

 

[scott43]

I would say our company talks work from home but doesn't do work from home, at least not easily. I would say this exercise is perceived as a way to save space and not really get the benefits of a more loose, mobile workforce. I would also say our business isn't conducive to the brainstorming type of environment. Collaboration yes, but not creativity necessarily.

 

[crgildart]

I have a solid rule to NOT log in or look at my emails or other work related things after logging off at 4:30 or 5 each day and not to log back in before 8 unless I remember something very important that I promised and didn't finish. I demand a solid barrier between work and personal home life. It's tempting to try to get ahead and put in extra hours while working from home... checking back in after dinner to work with west coasters or across the pond... but then the stakeholders get accustomed to expecting things done quicker and you're working more and more to the detriment of your family life.

I get that people accessible and engaged with the work team 24/7 get paid more and promoted more, but life's short. I'd rather have more time and less money than all the tea in China but no time to enjoy it.

 

[coskigirl]

I have a solid rule to NOT log in or look at my emails or other work related things after logging off at 4:30 or 5 each day and not to log back in before 8 unless I remember something very important that I promised and didn't finish. I demand a solid barrier between work and personal home life. It's tempting to try to get ahead and put in extra hours while working from home... checking back in after dinner to work with west coasters or across the pond... but then the stakeholders get accustomed to expecting things done quicker and you're working more and more to the detriment of your family life.

I get that people accessible and engaged with the work team 24/7 get paid more and promoted more, but life's short. I'd rather have more time and less money than all the tea in China but no time to enjoy it.

It's certainly a lifestyle choice that many have to make. I kind of walk a line in that I'm willing to look at email, work on things evenings/weekends, and respond if urgent. At the same time I'm allowed to do things like check in here during work hours so I feel like there's a balance. On the other hand, when I do major vacations (not just a day off here an there) I completely disconnect email from my phone and don't take my computer at all. The few people that might work hard enough to find me via phone are those that I trust to only do so if it were truly urgent. I one time had one of our operating company's president text me and ask if I was getting on a call regarding a major negotiation. The answer was no.