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

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

#261

Post by jandrewrogers »

lliamander wrote: post #227
take_a_breath wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

==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.

If people have the option to work remotely, they're more likely going to move to places where land is plentiful and cheap.

That's not helpful for the majority of people that actually like where they live. I live in the middle of a city because I like living in the middle of a city, for reasons that have nothing to do with where I work. Most people are not harboring a secret desire to suddenly move to a completely different type of neighborhood for the cheap land if they no longer have to commute.

Being forced to purchase a larger living space because a company decides to go remote is transferring a business cost to the employee. The same goes for being forced to move to a different neighborhood with land that is "plentiful and cheap" because you can't afford to buy a bigger place in your current neighborhood.

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

#262

Post by lanewinfield »

arbuge wrote: post #106
lanewinfield wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One minor difference in the story: a global pandemic

How do you think that will change things this time around exactly?

It's simple.

There needed to be an outside force to push large scale testing of remote to convince people to try it. That's the pandemic. It wasn't going to happen on large scale without it.

Now that it's been proven in many fields to be viable, it's got a much higher likelihood of sticking than before.

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

#263

Post by jandrewrogers »

neutronicus wrote: post #159
take_a_breath wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

==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.

Which they will find, for the same price, out in the sticks when they don't need to drive in.

Many people don't want to live in the sticks, they have a preference for where they already live.

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

#264

Post by luckylion »

talmr wrote: post #221
valar_m wrote: post #11

Christy Lake, chief people officer at Twilio: > “It’s probably not great business practice to pay Bay Area comps in Michigan,” Lake says. And when it comes time to promote, would those employees have the same opportunity to advance as everybody else? “We need to think proactively,” she says. So, in case anyone is applying to Twilio, heads up, I guess.

To be fair - I used to live in Ohio and my parents and I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment that cost $600/mo about fifteen years ago. You could buy a 5 bedroom house for $250k. The school district I attended was also top notch. It was a great family area and I remember the mall, rec center, and numerous parks. I checked zillow recently and 5 bedroom homes are ~$300k and apartments are about $800/mo. At the time, my dad…

So if you lived in that Ohio suburb, your code quality would be reduced vs living in California?

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

#265

Post by paxys »

throwawaysea wrote: post #232

It's not just about the rents and finances. Escaping Silicon Valley is also escaping a monoculture. Yes, the Bay has diversity in one sense (for example ethnic backgrounds), but in other ways (diversity of thought) it is very uniform. Urban living is also just one way of living. It's not the way everyone wants or needs to live, and those who want more breathing room can seek that out if they can work remotely. Politi…

Do you really think you're escaping "monoculture" by moving to Ohio?

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

#266

Post by whatok »

taurath wrote: post #243
jdsully wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea but during normal times coworkers will be having face to face conversations at the water cooler which you will miss being remote. So you are missing external interaction, but on the other hand the playing field is level in a way that it won't be once people start going back to the office.

If your company is in multiple offices you miss those anyway.

This is also somewhat of a self-correcting problem too. If these conversations really matter so much and either information isn't transmitted efficiently throughout the organization or it becomes a remote vs office clique thing, management either finds a solution or you probably go back to everyone in the office.

What I do know is that a lot of businesses are functioning perfectly fine 100% remote right now and there's a lot of fat that can be cut converting to full-time remote. Those benefits are likely going to outweigh "But what if Timmy gets left out of a conversation?!?!" If 100% or majority remote work becomes a competitive advantage, businesses will find a way to fix the communication gap.

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

#267

Post by wayoutthere »

selimthegrim wrote: post #104
wayoutthere wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it has reinforced my opposition to remote work. I feel like without a dedicated space for work, it is hard for me to mentally unplug from work. I'm already burned out from 2 months of this. I feel like I never know what day it is. Pre-pandemic, I set my life up so that I was walking distance to everything I needed. My apartment is super small, but that's fine when things are open. I'm actually considering buyi…

Squalor because of the virus?

Squalor because every store is boarded up and the area has been inundated with homeless people who piss/shit everywhere.

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

#268

Post by Apocryphon »

paxys wrote: post #265
throwawaysea wrote: post #232

It's not just about the rents and finances. Escaping Silicon Valley is also escaping a monoculture. Yes, the Bay has diversity in one sense (for example ethnic backgrounds), but in other ways (diversity of thought) it is very uniform. Urban living is also just one way of living. It's not the way everyone wants or needs to live, and those who want more breathing room can seek that out if they can work remotely. Politi…

Do you really think you're escaping "monoculture" by moving to Ohio?

It would at least be a different monoculture. And depending on the city, even less of one as East Coasters are fleeing their own respective sky-high rents to Ohio:

https://nypost.com/2018/04/25/ex-new-yorkers-are-flocking-to...

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

#269

Post by agustif »

jahaja wrote: post #121
cortesoft wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When we had daycare, I liked working from home. With no daycare, I can't get anything done at home.

But working from home doesn't require people to pull their kids out of daycare?

No but covid-lockdown induced WFH is not allowing also daycare to go to work I guess, also al schools/day-care business are/should be closed?

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

#270

Post by _2d30 »

epistasis wrote: post #74
gonehome wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forcing artificially low housing supply via legislation.

This exactly. I consider nearly all economic rents a "scam." A land-value tax set to the value of the economic rent would be a great corrective force on this.

The best populist movement ever was Georgism. The ones we have today are pretty awful
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