I work as a fairly senior SWE at Google, coming off 20+ years with private offices (some of that time full-time remote), and I agree with everything you said. I knew it would be hard going into the job. I actually get up at 5am so I can have a few quiet hours at my desk before the rest of the folks show up & it turns into a total zoo.
Having the top of the cream, Google/FB can allow themselves to have their engineers' performance be half of what these engineers can potentially produce. Too bad for the rest of us as our employers look at Google/FB and say "we want that success too" and make open floor offices too...
It has more to do with their sheer size IMO, not having the "cream". I've worked for ATT, Sprint, and a number of companies that are pretty big but not super big and somehow they function despite the idiocy that goes on. It's a form of "too big to fail" IMHO. There are just too many people to average out the slack and the ship has too much momentum. It's going to keep succeeding baring some huge market shift and/or gross negligence on managements part. I mean, seriously; there are a LOT of companies out there making TONS of money with no where near FB's or Google's reputation and desirability.
Wouldn't it be great if that effort was actually focused systematically? Exponential improvement.
Deming knew how to do it, and even outlined that the entire economy would rise because of improved management practices. I very much believe he is correct.
As a freelancer who works with a variety of teams, it is very hard getting a moment to 'get my own work done'. I also have a young daughter, and while she didn't say the following, I keep thinking about it to give me a slap in the face of perspective.
Child: Daddy, will you play wit me?
Dad: Sorry, I can't I have things to finish off from work.
I know, right? Early mornings (assuming one went to bed early enough and got enough sleep) are great and as I get older I'm more of a morning person anyway... my main challenge there is coordinating with my partner since our sleep schedules obviously are intertwined.
I did the same thing in 2013 when I worked at Google. I just shifted my working hours from 6:15am to 4pm and I had some quiet time, then the normal shared office environment.
I did the same thing at SAIC when I had a private office. Then my motivation was to have an hour or two for uninterrupted coding.
Except for 2013 I have worked remotely from home, which can be very good, but I do miss out on face time.
My question isn't necessarily specific to Google, but is it frowned upon if you bring noise-cancelling headphones?
I am a weirdly fluctuating person and some days I work best in total seclusion. Others I need to sit in the middle of a cafe and have the noise and people around me.
So my goal is to be as adaptive as possible without harming the day-to-day work life.
"but is it frowned upon if you bring noise-cancelling headphones"
Yes, at (former, thankfully) employer its the border between actionable offense (being written up) and merely being viciously trashed at review time. Management made the explicit decision to enforce collaboration (a 'la the whippings will continue until morale improves) and your actions are direct and intentional insubordination of that explicit formal requirement.
One person will get yelled at in front of everyone else (because its open office, duh) and nobody will dare to wear headphones again.
Its hard to find a more open and shut case description of intentional willful trivially documentable insubordination.
Noise cancelling doesn't work with speech that well. It's way better for steady background noise such as on a small plane if you're the pilot or on a large plane if you're a passenger.
I've tried one of those in the store once, they only work for constant background noise - fan hums, that kinda thing. For conversations they're ineffective, and regular in-ear things work better.
When we got moved into an open floorplan office, all engineers were issued Bose noise cancelling headphones. They're not perfect (you can still hear close conversations) but they're at least officially approved.
