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Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

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Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#121

Post by asutekku »

amw-zero wrote: post #4
aminozuur wrote: post #2

I applaud this trend. I am in the 60% of people[1] who prefer to work from home, and spend more time with loved ones and less time rushing to get to the office. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/business/pandemic-work-fr...

I’m very skeptical that 60% of all people prefer to work from home. In my experience, it’s a small but vocal minority who don’t value the social component of an office. I think work from home should totally be optional, but why do work-from-homers assume that everyone else likes to work that way? I do not.

We had a questionnaire at my company and the numbers are pretty similar. It’s not just a loud minority.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#122

Post by bananaface »

khuey wrote: post #115
prostoalex wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feels like we've been through #1 with the wave of Indian outsourcing prophesied to eat up US IT industry 20 years ago. If Austin or Denver offer employees at a discount, why not Manila and Bangalore?

Staying within North America largely eliminates the timezone problem.

I don't fully buy this argument. New York offices rarely outsource to Equador.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#123

Post by ahnick »

brianwawok wrote: post #116
prostoalex wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feels like we've been through #1 with the wave of Indian outsourcing prophesied to eat up US IT industry 20 years ago. If Austin or Denver offer employees at a discount, why not Manila and Bangalore?

Culture and time zone differences are generally greater SF to Manila, over SF to Austin.

Taxes are less complicated too.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#124

Post by QuixoticQuibit »

andromeduck wrote: post #12

Having moved back to Vancouver for a few weeks it's honestly so refreshing to, be back. Living in SF for a few years kind of makes you forget what being in a half functioning city is like. It's safer, it's cleaner, the people friendlier, the discourse less polarized/toxic, and the public transit isn't garbage.

Yes, I already feel this despite not having moved out of the SFBA yet. I miss more dense cities with functional transit systems and fewer on-the-street issues. Still planning to stay here long term to save extra money. But as soon as I hit my number, I’m moving out of this disaster in urban planning; there’s just no future here.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#125

Post by swsieber »

bananaface wrote: post #122
khuey wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying within North America largely eliminates the timezone problem.

I don't fully buy this argument. New York offices rarely outsource to Equador.

As someone who works with a company only two timezones away, I think there is truth to it. I wouldn't say it's the only reason though.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#126

Post by Mountain_Skies »

andromeduck wrote: post #12

Having moved back to Vancouver for a few weeks it's honestly so refreshing to, be back. Living in SF for a few years kind of makes you forget what being in a half functioning city is like. It's safer, it's cleaner, the people friendlier, the discourse less polarized/toxic, and the public transit isn't garbage.

Better weather this time of year too. Public transportation seems to work better in Canada due to a greater willingness to make use of buses. Lots of people in the US who are in favor of mass transit will only use rail based transit, making the last mile problem troublesome. Buses feeding into the SkyTrain helps solve much of this problem.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#127

Post by __float »

kgermino wrote: post #120
khuey wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying within North America largely eliminates the timezone problem.

It also avoids a lot of cultural/communication problems. Even when everyone speaks the same language, words have subtly different meanings in different cultures. This is true across NA as well, but SF vs Atlanta is much closer than Chicago vs India or Brazil. Not to mention that these are also big countries with their own regional language variations.

This doesn't make much sense either -- many companies will happily employ people from India or Brazil if they live in SF or Chicago. Why are the "cultural/communication problems" not present then?

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#128

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

amw-zero wrote: post #4
aminozuur wrote: post #2

I applaud this trend. I am in the 60% of people[1] who prefer to work from home, and spend more time with loved ones and less time rushing to get to the office. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/business/pandemic-work-fr...

I’m very skeptical that 60% of all people prefer to work from home. In my experience, it’s a small but vocal minority who don’t value the social component of an office. I think work from home should totally be optional, but why do work-from-homers assume that everyone else likes to work that way? I do not.

I think the factor you're missing is the large chunk of people who just... aren't particularly fulfilled by their job. A lot of the people in that 60% are perfectly fine with it if working from home means they're less productive or achieve less of a personal connection with their coworkers - I know more than a few people who'd be happier watching Youtube alone for 8 hours than working.

Re: Remote work is reshaping San Francisco, as tech workers flee and rents fall

#129

Post by ponker »

amw-zero wrote: post #4
aminozuur wrote: post #2

I applaud this trend. I am in the 60% of people[1] who prefer to work from home, and spend more time with loved ones and less time rushing to get to the office. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/business/pandemic-work-fr...

I’m very skeptical that 60% of all people prefer to work from home. In my experience, it’s a small but vocal minority who don’t value the social component of an office. I think work from home should totally be optional, but why do work-from-homers assume that everyone else likes to work that way? I do not.

I think that the average willingness to work from home decreases with increasing time scale. Almost anyone would love to get a chance to “work from home” a day here and a day there when logistics requires — many fewer people would be happy working from home for 30 years.
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