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Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

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Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#541

Post by redisman »

jrockway wrote: post #197
redisman wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this a win-win-win though? Salaries become more normalized across the country so people can work from where they choose, SF rents will go down as techies start streaming out of the Bay Area, hiring pools for companies become inclusive of people who don't want to move to the Bay Area (or the other 2-3 tech cities). The rest of the country also certainly doesn't pay 1/3rd of your salary.

Will people start streaming out of the Bay Area, though? The thing that always interested me about the Bay Area was that my friends in Mountain View would be posting long bike rides throughout the winter. Where it's snowy and below freezing in New York, it's 55 degrees and sunny there. I imagine people like that a lot, and is part of the reason it's a popular place to live. There are other places in the US that are w…

If you remove the requirement of having to commute into the Bay Area, finding a place where you can bike every day of the year just becomes even easier. The American Southwest probably has a dozen places that are LGBT friendly and you can bike all year in beautiful nature. For half or less rent.

If it's anything like Seattle, there are great and beautiful communities a few hours away - you get the same weather and even better nature but it's too far to commute. And they're a lot cheaper.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#542

Post by netcan »

dogman144 wrote: post #498
papito wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We are a family" is bullshit. You need to be a pretty egregious repeat offender to be ostracized from a real family. A company can fire you on a whim, simply because someone with a business degree sorted a spreadsheet with salaries in descending order, and you were in the top 20. The more correct analogy is a sports team. Everyone works well together to win the medal, but it's much more pragmatic in that sense. Perh…

I recently read Netflix's culture doc, and they outright said they treat employees like a sports team - welcome to the team, perform at your best, you may get benched, you may get cut. There's no shame in getting cut, and you should be proud that you had the talent to perform at our level for the time you did. My main takeaway was: fair enough, and when can I get into that interview pipeline. I want to be on a meat-e…

There's something unsustainable about a "team" analogy... just as there is in a family one. Netflix may be the rare example where an elite sports team analogy applies, but... That can't be more than a rare exception.

Ultimately, sports is different just like family is different and the way those things work relate to those differences. Sports is objective. Work isn't. Managers, players & spectators all know if they're playing in the A-league or the local league. In workplace culture, implying that you're not in the A-league is taboo. Remember that "elite" means very rare, and usually short lived.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#543

Post by syshum »

TylerE wrote: post #205
syshum wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I think the biggest use case will be helping recreate the virtual water cooler. I dont think that is hard to replicate. Group chat / slack / teams is a common feature and can easily be used to fill this void.

That's recreating a water cooler with an HR drone sitting there spying.

There are ways to do it with out "HR Drone" spying

and further if you are saying things that would get you in hot water with HR then it is unlikely that a verbal conversation is better, in fact in many of these instances having a record of the conversation can be helpful....

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#544

Post by [deleted] »

esoterica wrote: post #401
fermienrico wrote: post #85

Then why pay $200k for a software engineer in the valley when the same talent can live outside of the bay area and can do with 1/3rd of the salary? The question I have is what portion of the $200k salary is 1) due to the raw talent of the individual 2) because they live in the bay area.

> Then why pay $200k for a software engineer in the valley when the same talent can live outside of the bay area and can do with 1/3rd of the salary That is a pretty ridiculous assertion. Rent and taxes are higher but they are not $130k/year higher. You can even save >$70k of the $200k you make in the bay area without being exceptionally frugal, which you obviously can't do if you're making $70k/year.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#545

Post by _bxg1 »

psweber wrote: post #501
_bxg1 wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flipside is that it takes a lot more intentional effort, which many of us may struggle to put forth. The vast majority of friendships are made in incidental contexts: people you just happen to be around and interact with through the normal course of life. Many adults struggle to make and maintain friendships when they no longer have school forcing them to be around peers, and become very isolated. I think your in…

You're describing the status quo before the crisis. We weren't suffering from excess happiness and satisfaction. It's time for something new. The new things are yet to be determined.

I'm describing a facet of human nature.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#546

Post by mLuby »

CodeSheikh wrote: post #273
Vysero wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't agree more. If I could work from home permanently I would move far far away from where I am currently living. I would get myself a nice condo or small house, and settle in. Currently, where I live, despite the fact that I make almost 30k/year more than the medium average income I still can only just afford a one bedroom apartment spending the suggested 30% of my income. Imagine being able to buy a house!!!…

What's the guarantee that say your San Francisco/NYC employer will keep paying you city rates when you are living in a small town in mid-west. At some point they will catch up and start saving money this way. Everyone at a tech company is not a crucial employee. Don't get me wrong, I am all in for getting paid SF rates while living in a cheap Texas suburb.

A straightforward legal fix is to make location one of the things you can't ask about during hiring, like age, marital status, or disability.

All they should be able to ask is what fraction of their work hours you're available for. It could be that everyone must be online 9-5 PST, or there're a few hours of overlap, or there's no expectation of common work hours as long as you "get your work done."

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#549

Post by VectorLock »

pmiller2 wrote: post #98
VectorLock wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking to some of my team and coworkers the main thing I hear is they miss face to face interaction with the people they work with, and I do as well. I would like to see the 1 day a week "meeting day" but really try to focus on socializing than "this is the day we do all our meetings" since those seem to be working just as well with video conference. Maybe restrict it to things like 1:1s and group discussions. Havin…

Are you kidding? Traveling economically by air is one of the worst travel experiences you can have. If you're going to do it weekly, then it needs to be relatively cheap to make it worthwhile. Don't forget, too, that if this does become the norm, companies will start decreasing comp to make up for not having to pay people to live in high CoL areas. In terms of comfort, I'd rather stand on a BART train than fly for an…

I've known a person or two who flew twice weekly to commute. Honestly I rather an hour flight twice a week than commute an hour each way 5 days a week on BART.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#550

Post by [deleted] »

gregkerzhner wrote: post #356

I think if you work with a brilliant group of coworkers that you love to hangout out with, then you are lucky and I can see how you miss being in the office. But, thats not the case for many of us. The crux of work relationships is that they are not voluntary. You might get lucky and have ones you love, or you might get some that are distracting, or at worse, you dislike. Either way though you are stuck with them. I…

[deleted]
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