Microsoft is essentially already a distributed company and has the technology for it. Why not hire remotely?
Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
11–20 of 278 posts
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#12The nuance you might not get from just the title: "Microsoft will now allow employees to work from home freely for less than 50 percent of their working week, or for managers to approve permanent remote work. " In order for true relocation to be an option, that 'manager approval' must be unequivocal, unrevocable and transferable, when, as happens very frequently at Microsoft, the worker gets a new manager.
Remote work is possible, but it’s not for everyone. Some people are good at it; they adapt well and remain productive. But... as Marissa Meier found out, some people are utterly bad at it, or some take advantage of the privilege of self management and milk the system. So they will have to measure and gauge to see the balance of benefits and detriments of permanent change.
Is there any evidence showing that Meier's drastic move actually improved Yahoo's results?
Also, do you think someone dishonest enough to take advantage of a remote position to spend their time working on their own startup would be a great asset on-site?
I'm not saying remote work is for everyone, far from it, but there is a difference between comparing someone that is not as productive when WFH, and someone who milks the practice illegally.
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#13IMHO companies need to either embrace WFH fully or not at all. This current "we're kinda mostly WFH but not really sometimes" is the worst, as you have archaic processes still in place from pre WFH days that are still enforced, and most importantly, if management is in the office and you're not, over time, the colleagues who will be in the office will seem to get really lucky in regards to promotions and opportunitie…
Seems like its conditioned on management always being in the office- something which might decline over time.
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#14The really interesting thing here is the possibility of part-time work. I recently switched from full-time work to independent contracting, and have a single part-time contract while looking for a second. Honestly, part-time contracting work is really, really nice. The pay is more than enough to live on and I have a ton of free time which I am devoting to rock climbing, finally writing a bunch of blog posts, and lear…
health insurance is my big wish. 20 hrs/wk with health insurance I'd work for 1/3rd my salary. EDIT: I have a family like most people. EDIT2: I'm thinking about how insurance isn't as expensive as giving up more than that in salary, but maybe I need the security of steady work on the resume, sick leave and a job to lean on if things get tough.
If you're single and willing to pay over $500/month you can get some pretty okay health insurance. Families throw a huge wrench in that plan though. Currently I'm just using COBRA.
Nothing crystalizes support for medicare-for-all faster than ten seconds looking at the public health insurance marketplace.
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#15A lot of info is missed here as well. Sales orgs (quite a large part of Microsoft) must still work from the office (with exceptions) and cannot relocate as they need to meet customers - including the technical sales. Even though they've worked fine from home and were in fact MORE productive. So a lot of nuance is missed, and the application of this isn't as broad as it is suggested.
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#16The nuance you might not get from just the title: "Microsoft will now allow employees to work from home freely for less than 50 percent of their working week, or for managers to approve permanent remote work. " In order for true relocation to be an option, that 'manager approval' must be unequivocal, unrevocable and transferable, when, as happens very frequently at Microsoft, the worker gets a new manager.
Not sure about the US, but in the UK, if a manager agreed that you could remote work, and then at some point later, withn no justification (e.g. poor performance), and the company tried to back out of that, it would be construed as constructive dismissal, which can force a pay out.
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
health insurance is my big wish. 20 hrs/wk with health insurance I'd work for 1/3rd my salary. EDIT: I have a family like most people. EDIT2: I'm thinking about how insurance isn't as expensive as giving up more than that in salary, but maybe I need the security of steady work on the resume, sick leave and a job to lean on if things get tough.
If you're single and willing to pay over $500/month you can get some pretty okay health insurance. Families throw a huge wrench in that plan though. Currently I'm just using COBRA. Nothing crystalizes support for medicare-for-all faster than ten seconds looking at the public health insurance marketplace.
How come its so expensive? The top top insurance in my european country is $100 and a pretty good is 30.
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're single and willing to pay over $500/month you can get some pretty okay health insurance. Families throw a huge wrench in that plan though. Currently I'm just using COBRA. Nothing crystalizes support for medicare-for-all faster than ten seconds looking at the public health insurance marketplace.
How come its so expensive? The top top insurance in my european country is $100 and a pretty good is 30.
You're not accounting for, uhm... freedom. /s
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remote work is possible, but it’s not for everyone. Some people are good at it; they adapt well and remain productive. But... as Marissa Meier found out, some people are utterly bad at it, or some take advantage of the privilege of self management and milk the system. So they will have to measure and gauge to see the balance of benefits and detriments of permanent change.
Is there any evidence showing that Meier's drastic move actually improved Yahoo's results? Also, do you think someone dishonest enough to take advantage of a remote position to spend their time working on their own startup would be a great asset on-site? I'm not saying remote work is for everyone, far from it, but there is a difference between comparing someone that is not as productive when WFH, and someone who milk…
>” Is there any evidence showing that Meier's drastic move actually improved Yahoo's results?”
I don’t think we have public insight into any internal results. We do know that there was evidence that a significant number of people logged in seldom or sporadically for years according to accounts of VPN and other logs. So the skating and slacking was inordinately sufficient for her to pull the plug on that option.
Re: Microsoft is letting employees work from home permanently
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're single and willing to pay over $500/month you can get some pretty okay health insurance. Families throw a huge wrench in that plan though. Currently I'm just using COBRA. Nothing crystalizes support for medicare-for-all faster than ten seconds looking at the public health insurance marketplace.
How come its so expensive? The top top insurance in my european country is $100 and a pretty good is 30.
Public health systems often subsidise private health care, so some of that difference will come from taxes.