Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–39 of 39 posts

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#31

Post by smt88 »

andreshb wrote: post #20
smt88 wrote: post #15

I've hired and worked with many dozens of devs around the world. Some I worked with for 10 days, others for years. The only downside that I haven't found a solution for is communication. Even with brilliant people who had been speaking English for decades, a lot gets lost because of language. It's hard enough to talk to other Americans about technical issues. It's harder when the other person is losing small, importa…

Would you have the same problem working with non native English speaker immigrant programmers in the US? They’ve spoken English for decades but not native speakers.

Where they live is irrelevant, except that there's a correlation between speaking English natively and living in the US. The only real variable is their fluency, so an American living in Tibet would be easier to work with than an immigrant in Ohio who has only been speaking English for a year.

My anecdotal experience with this is minimal because immigrants often work with larger companies than mine, but I have had a few.

One coworker was from Ukraine, and communication was very hard. He'd been in the US for more than 10 years, but he sounded like his only experience speaking English was from formal classrooms. As someone who is awful at learning and pronouncing foreign languages, I can definitely sympathize with him. I'm sure it was not an issue of effort at all.

The others were Indian, and there was no noticeable communication barrier. They knew (and used) American idioms, and they never seemed to have trouble keeping up with the mumbly way that tech people often talk. These were CTO-level, went to top colleges, and probably had a lot of English immersion in India before they moved.

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#32

Post by gshdg »

villgax wrote: post #12
therm0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why should I have to compete with developers of the same skill level who can afford to take a much, much lower salary than I can? Especially when I took out American debt to attend an American university so I can live in America and work an American software job.

Then stop buying all imported stuff & pay full blown prices for made in US stuff.

Some of us would if there were still US stuff to buy, or if finding it weren't near-impossible.

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#34

Post by muzani »

blaser-waffle wrote: post #29
therm0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why should I have to compete with developers of the same skill level who can afford to take a much, much lower salary than I can? Especially when I took out American debt to attend an American university so I can live in America and work an American software job.

Welcome to capitalism in 2020 mon ami. Enjoy the ride.

Everyone is an avid supporter of capitalism, until the free market no longer favors them.

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#35

Post by tmaly »

ajauntyshark wrote: post #27

It usually means they have payroll and processes around taxes implemented in the US only. They might be unwilling to take "contractors" who are actually full time employees from other countries since in those scenarios they still have tax obligations. For some countries in the EU, such as Germany, you're unable to "contract" someone full time since the "employee" isn't actually self-employed and it would enable them…

Seems like you could turn this HR issue into a company. I am sure there are even ones that exist for the bigger countries outside the US.

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#36

Post by meiraleal »

sg47 wrote: post #9
therm0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why should I have to compete with developers of the same skill level who can afford to take a much, much lower salary than I can? Especially when I took out American debt to attend an American university so I can live in America and work an American software job.

Why should daily wage workers make Nike shoes in Bangladesh for peanuts when they can be manufactured in America for 10x more?

You gave the worse example to prove that capitalism is failing the world. Export the bad jobs, keep the good ones. And sell the fruits of both work to the poor people with the bad jobs you exported, getting your payroll money back tenfold.

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#37

Post by muzani »

meiraleal wrote: post #36
sg47 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should daily wage workers make Nike shoes in Bangladesh for peanuts when they can be manufactured in America for 10x more?

You gave the worse example to prove that capitalism is failing the world. Export the bad jobs, keep the good ones. And sell the fruits of both work to the poor people with the bad jobs you exported, getting your payroll money back tenfold.

As someone who lives in a manufacturing and assembly developing country, these jobs are actually very good for the local economy. Making Nike shoes 45 hours a week sucks, but it beats making ends meet by cutting grass or making lower quality shoes for less money. After a few decades of this, we can now afford Western luxuries like KFC and buy Factorio instead of pirating it.

It's disadvantageous to the richer countries, though.

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#38

Post by andreshb »

tmaly wrote: post #35
ajauntyshark wrote: post #27

It usually means they have payroll and processes around taxes implemented in the US only. They might be unwilling to take "contractors" who are actually full time employees from other countries since in those scenarios they still have tax obligations. For some countries in the EU, such as Germany, you're unable to "contract" someone full time since the "employee" isn't actually self-employed and it would enable them…

Seems like you could turn this HR issue into a company. I am sure there are even ones that exist for the bigger countries outside the US.

Deel and Pilot are two of many doing this

Re: Ask HN: What Stops You from Switching Remote US Only to Remote Same Time Zone?

#39

Post by meiraleal »

muzani wrote: post #37
meiraleal wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gave the worse example to prove that capitalism is failing the world. Export the bad jobs, keep the good ones. And sell the fruits of both work to the poor people with the bad jobs you exported, getting your payroll money back tenfold.

As someone who lives in a manufacturing and assembly developing country, these jobs are actually very good for the local economy. Making Nike shoes 45 hours a week sucks, but it beats making ends meet by cutting grass or making lower quality shoes for less money. After a few decades of this, we can now afford Western luxuries like KFC and buy Factorio instead of pirating it. It's disadvantageous to the richer countri…

'Afford western luxuries' is a great euphemism for over-consuming ads and garbage.
Post reply on HN