I also worked at Google after almost 20 years of working at home. I didn’t mind the cube environment because I worked from about 6am to 3pm, giving me a few hours of quiet heads down time every day. My last job before retiring at Capital One was the same, I started work early in the morning for heads down work time, was available for brainstorming, etc., then knocked off work mid afternoon. I really recommend time shifting for people having problems concentrating in a cube environment.
I did the same thing. I would get to the office before 6 and have 2-3 hours of quiet time. That was the only way that I was able to get anything done.
The bad thing is that, almost 5 years later, my sleep schedule is still screwed up because of this. I have a really hard time sleeping past 5:30am, and I'm afraid its damaged my health.
You didn't find that there was pressure to work later? I tend to prefer to come in late because you can control your bound on that, but leaving early makes you look bad (despite the irrationality of that), and its just easy to fall into the habit of "oh just another hour, I will still be home for dinner..."
There was some, but we tended to put a bound on meetings to 10-3. I had a good excuse in that I had hard deadline of 3:45 to pick my son up from school most days. The days that I stayed late, it was mostly for social events. Either TGIF on thursdays, or group celebrations which were generally at 4.
YES. Early morning time is the most productive time for many people. It's all downhill after lunch.
The problem is, many companies are more hip about WFH than hour shifting. It's not a thing. If you start coming into work early to get more done, you will get the looks if you don't stay in the office until 6:00PM, just like everyone. That is not sustainable.
However, if you are a European or Indian offshore, then hour shifting is built in. Onshore, night owls are hard-working, and early birds are slackers - because no one can see them work.
What I am saying is, a lot of office work is optics. Being there and within line of sight of everyone counts more than being productive and in the zone. It's dumb as fuck.
> YES. Early morning time is the most productive time for many people. It's all downhill after lunch.
For me and many others it's right the other way around. The single way you can kill my productivity is to force me to get up earlier than 8. Now with Corona lockdowns, I can get up at 9 (!) and actually feel rested!
