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Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

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Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#201

Post by sidlls »

sparkpy724 wrote: post #174
incanus77 wrote: post #110

This is such a smart move. I was one of the first two simul-hire remotes at Mapbox (when the company was ~12 people) and, until I left in 2017, the longest-term remote there at seven years. I've been fully remote for thirteen years. At Mapbox, I unofficially took on the role of internal advocate for remote culture. It wasn't always easy to be remote, but as the company grew, Eric, the CEO, was fond of saying that "ev…

> improve our ability to tap the 99.74% of talented engineers living outside the metro areas of our first four hubs Bbbut the only good engineers are in the Bay Area!!!! /s

Most of them are in tech hubs like the bay area. I know it's popular to dismiss that view as unjustified arrogance or whatever, but I've actually made a living in the Midwest and other "not a tech hub" locations. The difference in interest and ability cannot be overstated: my colleagues in SF are heads and shoulders above the typical developer I worked with in those other places.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#202

Post by camhenlin »

Androider wrote: post #143

HN remote workers, does your company pay for your use of a coworking space? Or even fully manage it? I've noticed that companies I admire greatly like Basecamp, and also in yesterday's Who's Hiring thread, that they list a $200-$300 monthly stipend towards coworking space fees as an employee perk. That doesn't seem quite enough to fully cover a coworking space in NY or SF. I'm tasked with building a remote engineerin…

No. I work for a fully remote company, and we decided that individuals within the company could pay for working a coworking space if they wanted, but giving them a stipend for doing so created a benefit for those employees that didn't exist for employees that optimized their home office for remote work. Personally I am in favor of more pay for every employee across the board at an organization rather than trying to come up with lots of extra benefits to take advantage of to collect more money.

I think that some kind stipend for office/equipment/etc does make sense for companies that have remote and in-office employees, but feel that it should be a set amount and not tied to actual usage, as I feel that in those cases, the company is getting a clear benefit from the worker being remote, in not having to provide them with space in the office.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#203

Post by Androider »

imhoguy wrote: post #141
kevsim wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"There is substantial organizational, legal, and financial infrastructure required to support each new jurisdiction we hire in, so we have to be measured in how quickly we expand." Each country you want to pay salary in comes with legal aspects. Therefore they have to be a bit tactical with where they try to hire people.

As remote guy I see potential for disruption in this area. So far umbrella subsidiaries or agencies and invoice-based contracting does the job, but stuff like IP rights and liability is quite complex. We would need some Stripe-like service for employment matters.

In the US there are PEOs (professional employer organizations) that function as virtual co-employers that allow companies to hire in all 50 states without establishing a physical presence, handles payroll, state taxes, health insurance and benefits in all the states etc.

Something like that, but on a global scale, would be amazing for remote hiring. What unfortunately now seems to happen is that remote foreign employees get classified as contractors (which probably wouldn't stand up to any real scrutiny), which isn't great for either party.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#204

Post by robocat »

throwaway4721 wrote: post #171
luminati wrote: post #166

Million dollar question - how are the remote stripes going to be compensated? Are they going to be compensated pegged on their geo-locale (which then just makes it like international offices without the office)? I'm pretty sure the dublin and singapore stripes are paid much lower than their sf counterparts. How are they going to resolve this for the remotes? Not poking at stripe, but generally as I think of remote wo…

They are compensated according to locale. Our Google sheet of offer anecdata contains a few entries for Stripe, some remote and some SF. I’ve seen a salary difference of 30%. I don’t know the people who entered them personally so I can’t speak to how well they performed during the interview, so take that with a grain of salt.

I just don't understand this.

If a company knows how to get choose a USD200k engineer in SF and get a good return for the company off that engineer, then why wouldn't you pay USD200k in all areas?

USD200k is a good carrot where I live, so you would be able to attract the best engineers living here (with far less competition and far less churn).

I get it that SF has network effects, but good remote engineers also tap into the same network.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#205

Post by kossae »

robocat wrote: post #204
throwaway4721 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are compensated according to locale. Our Google sheet of offer anecdata contains a few entries for Stripe, some remote and some SF. I’ve seen a salary difference of 30%. I don’t know the people who entered them personally so I can’t speak to how well they performed during the interview, so take that with a grain of salt.

I just don't understand this. If a company knows how to get choose a USD200k engineer in SF and get a good return for the company off that engineer, then why wouldn't you pay USD200k in all areas? USD200k is a good carrot where I live, so you would be able to attract the best engineers living here (with far less competition and far less churn). I get it that SF has network effects, but good remote engineers also tap…

> then why wouldn't you pay USD200k in all areas?

Because they don't have to. Peoples' expectations of salary are likely in line with their local job markets, so even great developers living in a rural area will likely either accept the average base salary for their locale, or move to SF for the larger payday (and all of the expenses that come with it).

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#206

Post by preinheimer »

Androider wrote: post #143

HN remote workers, does your company pay for your use of a coworking space? Or even fully manage it? I've noticed that companies I admire greatly like Basecamp, and also in yesterday's Who's Hiring thread, that they list a $200-$300 monthly stipend towards coworking space fees as an employee perk. That doesn't seem quite enough to fully cover a coworking space in NY or SF. I'm tasked with building a remote engineerin…

I hire people who work remote, I pay for co-working space at a mutually agreeable co-working location for everyone who wants it.

People who work from home, we buy the equipment they need. Laptop, nice chair, whatever.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#207

Post by b_t_s »

ngngngng wrote: post #61

I've always wanted to switch to fully remote. I worked from home for a couple weeks after my son was born and my current company didn't like it. My productivity was down and they noticed so they informed me I wasn't allowed to work remotely anymore because of it. Obviously it had nothing to do with the fact that they gave me 3 days of parental leave after the birth, so I was trying to help a recovering wife take care…

dude my productivity went down for like 2 years after having a kid. Griping about productivity during what "should" be parental leave is just wrong. Seriously, consider changing jobs, they'r not all like that.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#208

Post by masterj »

sparkpy724 wrote: post #175
danso wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean “why is this even a question?”? It’s a question that frequently comes up in remote worn discussions. Stripe being a big company, and now making a big commitment to remote work, is likely to be an example other companies draw from.

Can you name a single company that pays Remote Employees SF/Bay Area salaries? Edit: Fair enough. There are companies that pay everyone SF level salaries but you can also find companies like Gitlab - 100% Remote but they explicitly downscale from SF salaries based on location. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-operations/global-c...

ime Salesforce adjusts by locale, but not significantly so

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#209

Post by hunter23 »

embwbam wrote: post #145
kweinber wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Often it was lonely, isolating, I felt out of the loop on some decisions, I didn't get some in-jokes and nicknames, I missed the non-holiday parties and happy hours, etc." I am in this boat now. . . and find it really tough. Many others I know feel the same way but it is rarely talked about. How do you get over the social isolation of being remote?

I’ve worked remotely for most of the last 10 years. Don’t buy into the idea that work is your community or social life. That isolation can drive you to go places where people hang out after work (I met most of my friends at the climbing gym), get involved in clubs, etc. work sociality is a weak proxy for real community anyway. Also, I always work from coffee shops, because I like having humans around.

The truth is that almost half of our non-sleeping lives are spent in the workplace. We are inherently social animals (if not the most social animal on the planet). You've pointed out that there are lots of avenues for socializing outside of work, but I think it may be important for humans to socialize in the workplace too since we spend so much time there. It seems like we are wired to want to gather around the water-cooler and chat. As you mention, there's something quite natural about "wanting humans around".

One way to achieve this need to socialize is to work out of a co-working space or coffee shop.

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