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> “Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler,” the internal document stated, noting they expect employees to come in on alternate days so they're not at the same desk on the same day. “Through the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment.”

If only, there was an easier solution.

4 comments

Surely there will be someone who will realize that you can approach this problem by building a matching engine based on Hall's Marriage Theorem[1], and then deploy it onto multiple regions for maximum anti-fragility, get promoted, rally some new hires to launch it as an extension of Google Workplace, get promoted again, abandon the project, and then have the feature die 10 months after public launch wondering why operating it cost so much money.

At least, that would be the Google WayTM of doing it, right?

1: https://brilliant.org/wiki/hall-marriage-theorem/

Wow, I thought they were talking about two people sitting at one desk at the same time. This is insane. "Matching process for agreeing on a basic desk setup and establishing norms?"

BRB, I have something I need to do over at schwab.com. I'll be back shortly.

Don't believe everything you read on CNBC. They tend to exaggerate. A lot. There is no "matching process". People will be paired up, and have to agree upon the norms. The email isn't opinionated about this. Each org will have to figure out a process.

What's next? No more food in the office?

The best and brightest minds of our generation being treated as children. Oh yeah. This is going to work out just fine.

> The best and brightest minds of our generation being treated as children.

That's always been Google's move. Get some CS graduates from top schools, ideally right after graduation, and stretch out the campus experience as far as they can into the working world. Prevents them from developing the kind of independent thinking that might lead them to conclude that working at Google is not that great.

How is using float desks being treated like children?

This isn't float desks. This is an assigned desk that requires you to share and coordinate office time with a co-worker. This is so much worse than float desks.

you are not important enough to deserve stability....your schedule is not yours....you are directed by the parents and told where to sit...and stand etc...

Snow Crash does a good job satirizing the problems with float desks.

Though even Snow Crash is a little optimistic; it didn't predict the typical issues with a person's multi-monitor setup of the day not working quite right, or encountering weird hardware incompatibilities between one's docking station of the day and one's laptop.

What is an easier solution?

WFH, it's a religion for some people. I personally absolutely must have my in-person work, but I understand the desires.

And that is an option too.

Not parent but presumably they mean WFH.

Hot desks?

A reservation system? I work for a remote optional company and employees can reserve desks ahead of time and/or you can get an assigned seat if you come in daily.

This is assigned hot desk which is better than just hot desk + reservation, which doesn't guarantee teams sit together.

Extreme pair programming but with 4 people instead of 2.