Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#111

Post by Turing_Machine » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #60

pwinnski wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While working from home, kids can often be a major distraction. Not insurmountable, but especially given that most people have been forced into some variety of home-schooling at the same time they were pushed into working from home, I could understand many people with kids choosing to go to an office.

People with kids often have different priorities. Having a slam dunk, distraction free, high productivity work day tends to be lower on the priority list. Spending time with your partner, taking care of the kids, cooking and eating dinner with the family; these all tend to be higher on the priority list. There are exceptions. Some people don’t respond well to the stresses of family life and want to escape to the offi…

Yes. I'm thinking of the old saying about no one ever arriving at his deathbed wishing he'd spent less time with his kids.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#112

Post by take_a_breath » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:32 PM UTC

caseysoftware wrote: post #66

aripickar wrote: post #8

I'm pretty bearish on the pandemic actually leading to massive change in the number of people permanently working from home. My boss put out a survey a week or two ago among my org (30 or so people), and 70% said that they want to work from the office, full time, 20% said some time or most of the time, and 10% said fully remote. And this is a group of people that would be largely well suited to working from home duri…

I've seen/heard different numbers from elsewhere: 20% want to work from home permanently 20% want to get back to the office full time 60% want flexibility somewhere in between Personally, I think the specific breakdown is less important than companies realizing that letting people be remote can improve work/life balance, reduces office space needs, and they have most of the infrastructure to support it. As an industr…

==reduces office space needs==

While increasing their employees home-space needs. People will need bigger houses and apartments if everyone is going to work from home long-term.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#113

Post by whatok » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

aripickar wrote: post #8

I'm pretty bearish on the pandemic actually leading to massive change in the number of people permanently working from home. My boss put out a survey a week or two ago among my org (30 or so people), and 70% said that they want to work from the office, full time, 20% said some time or most of the time, and 10% said fully remote. And this is a group of people that would be largely well suited to working from home duri…

Surveys are fine and all but in some industries/companies, workers are not going to have much say in this. When it comes down to cost savings from increased productivity and reduced/eliminated office space, the decision is very easy for some. Not to say it's the right decision but it's a decision some are going to make with some limited data at hand.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#114

Post by __sy__ » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

"[Living in] a one-bedroom rental in South San Francisco, a short commute from Facebook Inc.’s offices in Menlo Park"

-- might want to edit the "short" part. I think that's at least a 1-hour commute, EACH way :)

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#115

Post by tibiahurried » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

aripickar wrote: post #8

I'm pretty bearish on the pandemic actually leading to massive change in the number of people permanently working from home. My boss put out a survey a week or two ago among my org (30 or so people), and 70% said that they want to work from the office, full time, 20% said some time or most of the time, and 10% said fully remote. And this is a group of people that would be largely well suited to working from home duri…

> people who are fully remote are going to fall behind in promotions,

Unfortunately, I have to agree with that. There is also the case that if you have to work from the office. Make sure your boss is not remote.

I had that experience, and it sucked.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#116

Post by smnrchrds » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

ransom1538 wrote: post #48

zaidf wrote: post #14

People won't continue making their current SF salary by working out of Farmville, Ohio. I think this point is missed by many I fully expect Twitter, for example, to come out with salary adjustment policies for people who want to work from home from an entirely different city and state

Salary based on your locale even though everyone is remote: hilarious. "Oh you live in Alabama you get 60k" "Oh you live in Manhattan on 65th street that is 150k". This will backfire into a political hell.

Gitlab famously does this, is very open about it [0], and in general has enjoyed more praise for their all remote structure than hell for their differing salaries. Maybe the companies won't rush to cut salaries of current employees who go remote and move elsewhere. But I fully expect them to offer new hires different salaries based on their location. After all, they already do that with their non-remote offices. It's not like Google is paying the same salaries to workers in their SF office and Toronto office.

[0] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/compensation...

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#117

Post by TulliusCicero » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

MattGaiser wrote: post #68

ransom1538 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salary based on your locale even though everyone is remote: hilarious. "Oh you live in Alabama you get 60k" "Oh you live in Manhattan on 65th street that is 150k". This will backfire into a political hell.

If everyone is remote, the salary will just generally be low, period.

Right, that's one strategy, but then that means you lose out on strong engineers living in expensive areas. And since the major tech hubs are mostly very expensive, that means you're missing out on a lot of potential candidates.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#118

Post by gremlinsinc » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

ransom1538 wrote: post #48

zaidf wrote: post #14

People won't continue making their current SF salary by working out of Farmville, Ohio. I think this point is missed by many I fully expect Twitter, for example, to come out with salary adjustment policies for people who want to work from home from an entirely different city and state

Salary based on your locale even though everyone is remote: hilarious. "Oh you live in Alabama you get 60k" "Oh you live in Manhattan on 65th street that is 150k". This will backfire into a political hell.

Get a forwarding mail box from Manhattan and tell your company that's where you live. I mean seriously if the company's gonna dick around w/ salaries like that. I mean other than mailing tax documents is it really their business where you live?

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#119

Post by brenden2 » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

jurassic wrote: post #72

brenden2 wrote: post #28

Desirable areas will always be (relatively) more expensive. Even if we see significant deflation (which is unlikely given the scale of money printing), these areas (NYC, SF) will probably remain expensive so long as they remain significant culturally and economically. When it becomes uncool to live in SF or NYC, then perhaps people will move to places like Wyoming en masse.

The cultural amenities of cities are in serious jeopardy, generally. Many of the restaurants, clubs, theaters, museums, bars, etc that make the city a desirable place may never reopen.

Sure, but that's likely only temporary. And if it's not, then we probably have much worse things to worry about than which cities are hip.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#120

Post by twblalock » Thu, May 14, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

gremlinsinc wrote: post #118

ransom1538 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salary based on your locale even though everyone is remote: hilarious. "Oh you live in Alabama you get 60k" "Oh you live in Manhattan on 65th street that is 150k". This will backfire into a political hell.

Get a forwarding mail box from Manhattan and tell your company that's where you live. I mean seriously if the company's gonna dick around w/ salaries like that. I mean other than mailing tax documents is it really their business where you live?

> Get a forwarding mail box from Manhattan and tell your company that's where you live.

Lying to your company about things like that is a great way to get fired.

Everyone should ignore this terrible advice.