Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read it the other way. Only people who are young with no distractions at home, favor working at home. People who usually have family members at home, get too distracted compared to a office environment, to prefer working at home.
When we had daycare, I liked working from home. With no daycare, I can't get anything done at home.
Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
121–130 of 424 posts
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#122Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> young, no kids, etc There is your major reason for that survey result. Companies with median-older workforces will see more enthusiasm for remote work.
In my 30s, married, with kids, and a dog. Will NEVER willingly commute into an office. I'm significantly more productive and have build a life style around getting my work done, quick lunch break, walking the dog is get up from my desk at healthy intervals. When paired with a results only work environment, allows me to handle errands during non peak hours and then finish up any remaining work in the evening hours aft…
I actually got a huge raise changing jobs from a fully in-office one to a fully remote one though.
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#124I'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…
Likely some selection bias there, in that your company was not fully remote when people took their jobs. People tend to take a job that is suited for them: if they want to work in an office, they take an office job, if they want to work remotely, they'll take a remote job. Remote-only or remote-primary companies exist (see: WordPress, GitHub, Gitlab, ElasticSearch, Ethereum, MakerDao); many of the people who actually…
Depending on the overall employment situation, a lot of people are going to find that the office situation at their employer is no longer one they want going forward.
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#125Desirable 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.
Silicon Valley and San Francisco are two different things. Most junior people in Silicon Valley live in cookie-cutter apartment buildings smack in the middle of a vast wasteland of anonymous subdivisions. Pull up some satellite views and take a look. That's not desirable. It's just expensive.
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#126Earlier 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?
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#127The pairing of working in an office with a hellish commute is a bit odd. Maybe SF really is a parallel universe. Here in the UK, basically anyone earning a tech salary can afford to live within 10-20 mins cycle of work, even if they want children. You won't have a home with a garden and all the rest of the knick knacks, sure, but that's a different discussion.
The reason why they don't is still due to the high rent though. When living with a roommate or two, or living a bit further away means you get an extra $1000+ a month to spend on other things, that can be very enticing.
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#128Desirable 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.
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a damn shame, really, the slavish devotion to one's car and spending hours a day sitting in traffic apparently is apparently preferred over actually getting time back in your everyday life. It's like people have adapted to having no life outside of work, and now they're just so bored they'd rather lose that time than just find a new hobby or learn something. I don't think I've ever thought about anything more de…
> It's a damn shame ... Let people do whatever they want! Adjust the system so people can actually choose how they would like to spend their days. This doesn't have to be a binary option - remote vs office! We have actually an opportunity to adjust the established system and build one that will be more versatile for people with families and folks in the middle class. I'm really curious to know what is your position t…
Agreed. See, the funny thing here is you're pissed because I'm "pushing my views on every god damn post about remote work", when I see the exact opposite. Every post, everyone is against remote work. Those people do the exact same damn thing as you think I'm doing, which is "we should all be in the office 100%!"
First, I never said that everyone should be remote. Never said it once. I think we need flexibility, ie. the option to work from home. But the people who really don't like remote work, seem to despise the people who do. It's never been more apparent than this thread - either people are with me 100%, or want me dead.
The conclusion here is that everyone is totally insane, that's my takeaway.
Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents
#130One thing this doesn't mention is the pay cuts that happen if you do decide to relocate to cheaper areas. Both me and my Wife's company have pay bands based on geographical region(most employees know nothing about this and most companies employ these salary COL changes for relocation) and certain regions you can take a big pay cut. Say your salary in the bay area is 100k for example, move to the South, say Florida an…