Will the tech giants close buildings in the docks

biggebruv · 27-07-2020 11:17pm #1

They have like the whole area if reports today about not coming back properly till next year just why do they need all them buildings doesn’t google alone have like 6 or something

Eric Cartman · 27-07-2020 11:26pm

the buildings were always more about dick swinging than needing the staff space. They'll keep them. The demand for the apartments however....

Man with broke phone · 27-07-2020 11:30pm

Alot of hotels being built around them, then other offices just wanting to be beside them to try and be perceived cool as them. Then alot of crap sandwhich bars and centras around them. Its probably safe to say a shopping district might even grow around the area.

Out of all the places in Dublin Id imagine around the docklands north and south will be safest.

ExMachina1000 · 27-07-2020 11:30pm

The United states is preparing some serious financial incentives to try and lure them home while at the same time Europe is looking for every excuse to try and tax them.

One day those buildings might close up permanently

27-07-2020 11:33pm

A former employer of mine was in the Docklands but they pulled out of Ireland due to the sky rocketing rents.

Eric Cartman · 27-07-2020 11:35pm

ExMachina1000 wrote: »

The United states is preparing some serious financial incentives to try and lure them home while at the same time Europe is looking for every excuse to try and tax them.

One day those buildings might close up permanently

fighting against the apple money was the best thing we did to keep them here. As long as we can be Europes little gateway to the states for money we'll stay, beyond that no dice.

ronivek · 28-07-2020 2:13am

Eric Cartman wrote: »

the buildings were always more about dick swinging than needing the staff space. They'll keep them. The demand for the apartments however....

I have no idea what planet you live on. Office space in Ireland especially for large multinationals is difficult to come by and expensive. They certainly wouldn't be investing tens of millions for the purpose of 'dick swinging'.

For example: Microsoft recently spent €134 million on a brand new office building built to spec. Even before they moved into it they were already outgrowing it; and subsequently they're looking to let additional space in the Docklands for around 400 staff.

28-07-2020 2:22am

ronivek wrote: »

I have no idea what planet you live on. Office space in Ireland especially for large multinationals is difficult to come by and expensive. They certainly wouldn't be investing tens of millions for the purpose of 'dick swinging'.

For example: Microsoft recently spent €134 million on a brand new office building built to spec. Even before they moved into it they were already outgrowing it; and subsequently they're looking to let additional space in the Docklands for around 400 staff.

Ah, to be fair there is an element of showing off involved. Otherwise they'd have just built these places in Westmeath somewhere on the cheapest plot of land they could find, and it'd be a basic warehouse/office block.

Building mega-buildings and putting them in the most expensive areas is a bit of a gloaty move. At the same time, so is driving anything other than the most basic of basic cars. If you have the money, you may aswell spend it and keep jobs going.

AlmightyCushion · 28-07-2020 2:24am

This is a friend of a friend story so could be bullshít or exaggerated but here it goes. Said friend of a friend has said that the company they work for will be allowing working from home from now on for all staff and they are evening looking to sell the building they are in and move to a smaller one.

Obviously, I can't see every company doing that but I imagine a few are certainly looking at the cost savings.

ronivek · 28-07-2020 2:34am

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah, to be fair there is an element of showing off involved. Otherwise they'd have just built these places in Westmeath somewhere on the cheapest plot of land they could find, and it'd be a basic warehouse/office block.

Yes; I'm sure those massive multinationals are building and letting in the Docklands and other areas of Dublin to show off. Not for any other reasons such as:

Access to public transport.
Closer to amenities, night-life, healthcare etc.
Closer to international travel hubs.
Closer to residential areas and hotels.

Victor · 28-07-2020 6:20am

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah, to be fair there is an element of showing off involved. Otherwise they'd have just built these places in Westmeath somewhere on the cheapest plot of land they could find, and it'd be a basic warehouse/office block.

The companies want to attract talented staff. These staff do not want to live in Westmeath, given that Dublin has better amenities.

Building mega-buildings and putting them in the most expensive areas is a bit of a gloaty move.

When many of the buildings were built, it wan't an expensive area.

Man with broke phone · 28-07-2020 7:18am

Victor wrote: »

The companies want to attract talented staff. These staff do not want to live in Westmeath, given that Dublin has better amenities.

When many of the buildings were built, it wan't an expensive area.

SO annoying when computer people keep talking about talented staff etc. Alot of these places are pretty much call centres. I know of one that is mainly south americans working south american time and answeing a list of questions off a sheet of paper because my old company have a mainrenance contract on the building. Talented staff. Only talented fella in the building was the one fixing the air con.

Edgware · 28-07-2020 7:25am

Man with broke phone wrote: »

SO annoying when computer people keep talking about talented staff etc. Alot of these places are pretty much call centres. I know of one that is mainly south americans working south american time and answeing a list of questions off a sheet of paper because my old company have a mainrenance contract on the building. Talented staff. Only talented fella in the building was the one fixing the air con.

Chip on the shoulder time. The air con man doesnt get paid for fixing it, he gets paid for finding the problem and knowing how to fix it. Same with these "call centres". People with expertise servicing customers all over the world

Wanderer78 · 28-07-2020 7:28am

Edgware wrote:

Chip on the shoulder time. The air con man doesnt get paid for fixing it, he gets paid for finding the problem and knowing how to fix it. Same with these "call centres". People with expertise servicing customers all over the world

Even though I respect the work of those in the game, I do suspect they're somewhat right about the call centres

Victor · 28-07-2020 7:38am

Man with broke phone wrote: »

SO annoying when computer people keep talking about talented staff etc. Alot of these places are pretty much call centres.

Those call centres are in East Point or Mahon, not the Docks.

krissovo · 28-07-2020 7:45am

Man with broke phone wrote: »

SO annoying when computer people keep talking about talented staff etc. Alot of these places are pretty much call centres. I know of one that is mainly south americans working south american time and answeing a list of questions off a sheet of paper because my old company have a mainrenance contract on the building. Talented staff. Only talented fella in the building was the one fixing the air con.

The so called Multinational “call center” I work in which sounds very similar to your description is in fact highly technical work. These lads average salary would be in the mid 70k range, starting pay is 48k and rises to 60k in 6 months after probation.

One example of what they do happened last weekend, every ATM in Mexico failed for a large global bank. These “Untalented” staff got them up and running within the hour solving a networking issue in their data center. Yes they do follow some scripts but they support 100’s of customers who have 1000’s of different configurations.

ronivek · 28-07-2020 7:46am

Man with broke phone wrote: »

SO annoying when computer people keep talking about talented staff etc. Alot of these places are pretty much call centres. I know of one that is mainly south americans working south american time and answeing a list of questions off a sheet of paper because my old company have a mainrenance contract on the building. Talented staff. Only talented fella in the building was the one fixing the air con.

Whilst there are probably some smaller operations which operate as 'call centres' in the manner you describe; that would not describe the vast majority of technology multinationals (or probably many other sectors) which are based here.

There are rooms in several places I have worked where someone such as yourself may *think* they're in a 'call centre'; and then I'd tell you that some of these people probably make more in a single year than your house is worth and you might think again about calling it a 'call centre'.

Eric Cartman · 28-07-2020 9:08am

Man with broke phone wrote: »

SO annoying when computer people keep talking about talented staff etc. Alot of these places are pretty much call centres. I know of one that is mainly south americans working south american time and answeing a list of questions off a sheet of paper because my old company have a mainrenance contract on the building. Talented staff. Only talented fella in the building was the one fixing the air con.

+1 , google dublin ‘average salary 135k’ but of 1000+ people in the building only 150 work for google , the rest are caterers, cleaners, facilities, outsourced call centre, outsourced telemarketing etc... who just get free pizza and pull home 20-30k

ronivek · 28-07-2020 9:36am

Eric Cartman wrote: »

+1 , google dublin ‘average salary 135k’ but of 1000+ people in the building only 150 work for google , the rest are caterers, cleaners, facilities, outsourced call centre, outsourced telemarketing etc... who just get free pizza and pull home 20-30k

It doesn’t take that many support staff to run an office. And exactly how many minimum wage call centre people and telemarketers do you think Google would have in its Dublin City Centre offices? I’ll give you a hint: it’s none.

As for employee numbers there would be a significant proportion of contractors for sure; but it would be more like 4 full time permanent Google employees to 6 or so contractors. And many contractors would still be well paid.

nullzero · 28-07-2020 9:37am

We could have some of the largest and swankiest methadone clinics in the world for all the brass monkeys down that direction.

Cordell · 28-07-2020 9:39am

Man with broke phone wrote: »

SO annoying when computer people keep talking about talented staff etc. Alot of these places are pretty much call centres. I know of one that is mainly south americans working south american time and answeing a list of questions off a sheet of paper because my old company have a mainrenance contract on the building. Talented staff. Only talented fella in the building was the one fixing the air con.

Have one of them fix your phone, see if you can afford their rate.

drunkmonkey · 28-07-2020 9:40am

Google are letting employees stay at home until July 2021, there's a few exceptions like Greece. Ireland won't be reopening any time soon.

Atlantic Dawn · 28-07-2020 9:44am

There's potentially 2 outcomes for office space in Ireland, the first is that companies will need to double or triple existing space to comply with the 2 meter social distancing guidelines, the other outcome is they realise with staff working in some cases perfectly well from home they can actually offload some of their existing office space.

Dravokivich · 28-07-2020 9:53am

ronivek wrote: »

It doesn’t take that many support staff to run an office. And exactly how many minimum wage call centre people and telemarketers do you think Google would have in its Dublin City Centre offices? I’ll give you a hint: it’s none.

As for employee numbers there would be a significant proportion of contractors for sure; but it would be more like 4 full time permanent Google employees to 6 or so contractors. And many contractors would still be well paid.

Not directly for them, but they all use "managed service providers," and that usually comes down to, how low can we pay someone. A couple of years back when the Min Wage went up, all the 1st line call centre staff where i work got a raise!

beauf · 28-07-2020 9:55am

Brexit hasn't gone away either...

Eric Cartman · 28-07-2020 10:00am

Dravokivich wrote: »

Not directly for them, but they all use "managed service providers," and that usually comes down to, how low can we pay someone. A couple of years back when the Min Wage went up, all the 1st line call centre staff where i work got a raise!

this is it.

Google ad sales and google apps (premium email/drive etc... ) sales and support make up a lot of the staff in the google offices. They're script readers who are taught just enough about DNS to do their jobs. All run by a managed services company but even their team leaders are only on 36k

Dravokivich · 28-07-2020 10:14am

Eric Cartman wrote: »

this is it.

Google ad sales and google apps (premium email/drive etc... ) sales and support make up a lot of the staff in the google offices. They're script readers who are taught just enough about DNS to do their jobs. All run by a managed services company but even their team leaders are only on 36k

Not even Facebook review their own content!

un5byh7sqpd2x0 · 28-07-2020 10:17am

ronivek wrote: »

It doesn’t take that many support staff to run an office. And exactly how many minimum wage call centre people and telemarketers do you think Google would have in its Dublin City Centre offices? I’ll give you a hint: it’s none.

As for employee numbers there would be a significant proportion of contractors for sure; but it would be more like 4 full time permanent Google employees to 6 or so contractors. And many contractors would still be well paid.

Contractors in fact would be paid more than their salaried counterparts, by a long shot.

Fred Cryton · 28-07-2020 10:27am

Working from home is a fad guys. You're just in a little bubble now and don't see it. Employers will want you back chained to your office as before soon enough. I know this is hard to believe, but your employer doesn't trust you to give 100% attention to your job at home. And they're right not to let's be honest, aren't you reading Boards.ie right now.

Demand for office space may actually increase due to social distancing requirements and the end of "hot desking". Or at the very least it'll stay the same as maybe 20% of people manage to get away with working from home. But those people will regret it - out of sight and out of mind and all that.

beauf · 28-07-2020 10:52am

Working from home requires a different metric of measuring productivity. That Bob is sitting at his desk won't cut it.
Is Bob hitting his targets and achieving his objectives. Yes or No.

But I agree that some people can't move past seeing people in seats. They are usually the people who don't measure productivity.
After 4 months of lockdown, if you want to keep working at home, you should have a list of work done, projects completed.
If you sat at home making excuses about the WiFi, expect to be back in the office.

28-07-2020 11:44am

ronivek wrote: »

Yes; I'm sure those massive multinationals are building and letting in the Docklands and other areas of Dublin to show off. Not for any other reasons such as:
Access to public transport.

Closer to amenities, night-life, healthcare etc.

Closer to international travel hubs.

Closer to residential areas and hotels.

Unless you're already living within the M50, i'd imagine the commute from your home to westmeath VS to dublin city centre are probably similar. At peak times it can take me 90+ minutes from Drogheda to the City Centre.

If i was going the opposite direction, in 90 minutes I'd cover a lot more ground.

If you build a big ass factory in Leitrim or Roscommon, and stick a Microsoft Logo on it, houses will start getting built, and the people working there will start spending in the town. If the jobs you are offering are in any way half decent, staff aren't going to care where the job is located, as if they're already commuting to Dublin City Centre then they're unlikely to be commuting for a much longer time, anyway.

If I worked in a decent Google job and was told they were opening a new office in the middle of nowhere, i'd have no issue in moving my job. The only people who'd fight it are those already living in dublin city.

Will the tech giants close buildings in the docks

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