Ask HN: How do remote first businesses maintain cultural cohesion? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do remote first businesses maintain cultural cohesion?

#81

Post by angrais » Mon, Oct 10, 2022, 5:27 PM UTC

speakfreely wrote: post #70

angrais wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's that a negative aspect? For many, that seems fair as it means you get paid the local rate and so can live anywhere in the world comfortably. Remote first does not necessarily mean bay area pay while living in a low cost of living country.

> How's that a negative aspect? Well, it reinforces a system where predominantly rich, white men who won the passport/work-permission lottery at birth are destined to continue receiving more money for doing the same work than the predominantly brown people of Asia and South America. It's difficult to understand why anyone who values equality would support this. > you get paid the local rate and so can live anywhere i…

The whole point is if you live in say India you'll be paid a rate as the same skilled person in India. This is independent of skin tone.

I'm not sure why you've brought up both "passport/work permission lottery" and an individual's race.

Re: Ask HN: How do remote first businesses maintain cultural cohesion?

#82

Post by speakfreely » Tue, Oct 11, 2022, 3:01 AM UTC

angrais wrote: post #81

speakfreely wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How's that a negative aspect? Well, it reinforces a system where predominantly rich, white men who won the passport/work-permission lottery at birth are destined to continue receiving more money for doing the same work than the predominantly brown people of Asia and South America. It's difficult to understand why anyone who values equality would support this. > you get paid the local rate and so can live anywhere i…

The whole point is if you live in say India you'll be paid a rate as the same skilled person in India. This is independent of skin tone. I'm not sure why you've brought up both "passport/work permission lottery" and an individual's race.

> The whole point is if you live in say India you'll be paid a rate as the same skilled person in India.

I mention the passport issue because, for most people in the world, it's not possible to relocate to San Francisco and put yourself in the high salary bracket. So you're stuck with whatever someone in the SF HQ thinks is a "good salary" in India. Realistically the best performers will go elsewhere and I expect that companies that employ this kind of model will be unable to compete for talent, but it's still frustrating to watch them underpay people in the meantime.

As for the skin tone issue, it's not a factor in what they pay, but the end result is undeniably split along racial lines due to local demographics. I mention this because many of these companies spend a lot of PR time talking about inclusiveness and workplace equality and then set up systems that underpay foreigners.

Re: Ask HN: How do remote first businesses maintain cultural cohesion?

#83

Post by drewcoo » Tue, Oct 11, 2022, 6:24 AM UTC

If that's culture, I ask HN, how do I find a company without culture?

What is described is not tangible or measurable. It is only about internal state: intention and connection and engagement as measured by no one in any way.

How, oh, how, HN, can I possibly find a startup that I don't co-found that isn't entirely side-tracked on unmeasurable bullshit and politics? Does anyone know a company that does that well?? I'd rather not work with the OP whether we're reinventing wheels or feels.

Re: Ask HN: How do remote first businesses maintain cultural cohesion?

#84

Post by troyvit » Wed, Oct 12, 2022, 4:41 AM UTC

hklgny wrote: post #49

troyvit wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. Building relationships with your co-workers that includes non-work contexts gives you more background to understand their motivations, and they yours. As as side benefit it can pay off as a great friendship that extends past the time when professionally speaking you go your separate ways. Five of my favorite friends are ex-coworkers.

Part of building relationships from a management perspective means understanding how people operate, and then helping to create an environment that’s conducive to them. Your responses in this thread read like you expect everyone you work with to instead meet you on your level. That’s great when everyone is like minded, but as teams scale up it doesn’t work that way. I also have many ex-coworkers who are great friends…

I'll think about that, though I definitely don't expect teams to meet me on my level. I mean if you read my comments on this thread I talk about my failures, not expectations that others failed to meet. If I make the mistake of joining a team whose level I can't meet then it's my mistake and I leave with as little disruption as possible.

Re: Ask HN: How do remote first businesses maintain cultural cohesion?

#85

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL » Sun, Oct 16, 2022, 4:43 AM UTC

I appreciate how the comoany I work at does it, it seems to work (entirely my opinion):

    - when hiring, culture is at the top in terms of requirements. The company go as far as to call people back if they were amazing culture fit, but didn't pass the interview for the role they applied to, when a lower-level role becomes available
    - standup is scheduled to last 30 minutes, the first 20 are reserved for random talk. As people join, various chat pop up and you get to know others
    - weekly lunch
    - cto is an amazing person, there is a lot of comradery, people are very affectionate to each other. I'm still not sure how this came to be, might have been a lack of social interaction due to covid? Point is, everyone is extremely caring for each other. The company allows it (sometimes doing this has economic costs), and it seems to go well