Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 490 posts

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#61

Post by [deleted] »

dubcanada wrote: post #25
geerlingguy wrote: post #7

WFH saves money for the company, I just hope that some of the expensive (to the company) perks like prime real estate, free meals, exercise programs, etc. can be translated into at least a minimal budget per employee of: Internet connection reimbursement, annual budget for workspace improvements (ideally with a large initial budget, like $1000 or more for desk, monitor, chair, etc.), and possibly some other perks. Bu…

My company did internet reimbursement. But most people don't know that there are massive tax benefits to working from home (at least in Canada) you can write off the percentage of your house you work in of your rent and stuff like that. That alone can equal a $1000 a year or so. But from a company point of view, getting rid of the office is a massive save in money, so I suspect some will increase salaries or offer ot…

[deleted]

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#62

Post by beardbound »

puranjay wrote: post #31

As someone who has worked from home for a decade, I predict a mental health apocalypse in the near future. Working from home permanently requires support infrastructure not everyone has access to. It also requires a different approach to work altogether which, again, not everyone is capable of adopting. If you have family, work from home is great. But if you're single, staying cooped up alone at home can be a disaste…

I completely agree. I'm single and have worked from home for years, minus a brief contracting gig in an office a few years ago. I made sure to make time for seeing people though. I have friends in my neighborhood and we would meet up for lunch or tea during the week and I would always go out on the weekends. With social distancing it's been really challenging.

I'm fortunate that I have friends that are also careful that live close to me that I can still see. It's not as safe as completely isolating, but I also weighed the risk of completely isolating myself from everyone and I decided that I had to be okay with a certain amount of risk of infection. People don't really talk about the death toll of mental health problems, but it's substantive in certain demographics. I keep telling my friends that you can't eliminate risk, just mitigate it to an amount that you're comfortable with, and that amount is different for everyone.

Complete isolation is not a sustainable plan. I've been looking at what my lifestyle is going to be like until we start getting this under control, which doesn't look like it's coming in the short to medium term.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#63

Post by renewiltord »

svrtknst wrote: post #20
jopsen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I somehow don't feel sorry if overpaid tech workers, like me, have to buy a desk and chair. It's not like you need new office furniture very often.

it's a bad precedent when workers pay the company they're working for

Is it, though? I've always brought my own tools - my Aeron, my preferred high-refresh monitors, a Linux dev machine where possible, my monitor arms, my IDE.

I have a good setup. I know it works.

It's not as feasible to get my own standing desk in each time so I let that go. But they always give me everything and I just set them aside and use my (superior) tooling.

I don't think that's paying the company. That's just me buying tools that are optimal for me. I don't really need each employer to do that for me. These things are mostly buy it for life (except for the desktop and IDE license).

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#64

Post by ashtonkem »

christiansakai wrote: post #32

Curious, what makes this move (and all the rest of the WFH companies) permanent? Won't in the future when things go back to normal the cities will pressure the companies to have their employees go back into offices to make the economy moving? You know, coffee shops, restaurants, etc need to survive.

The longer this goes, the more normalized it becomes. There’s also the fact that some percentage of workers have made it very clear that they do not want to return to an office, and companies fear mass attrition to permanent WFH companies if they don’t setup a release valve.

A VP recently told me that he expected 15-20% attrition if he demanded a return to the office once this is over.

On the coffee shop front, the most likely outcome is that remote workers will move to smaller cities away from NYC and coastal CA. Coffee shops and restaurants will still get patrons, but there will be more of them in Denver and Austin than SF and LA.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#65

Post by Ensorceled »

christiansakai wrote: post #32

Curious, what makes this move (and all the rest of the WFH companies) permanent? Won't in the future when things go back to normal the cities will pressure the companies to have their employees go back into offices to make the economy moving? You know, coffee shops, restaurants, etc need to survive.

I didn't decrease how much I went to coffee shops and restaurants when I started working from home several years ago. That happened with COVID ...

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#67

Post by tidepod12 »

thrownaway954 wrote: post #48
puranjay wrote: post #31

As someone who has worked from home for a decade, I predict a mental health apocalypse in the near future. Working from home permanently requires support infrastructure not everyone has access to. It also requires a different approach to work altogether which, again, not everyone is capable of adopting. If you have family, work from home is great. But if you're single, staying cooped up alone at home can be a disaste…

not trying to sound like a dick... everyone has to get out of the house and making actual friends in life. co-workers aren't friends, bosses aren't friends, clients aren't friends, work relationships aren't friends. we all need human interaction... join a club, a gym, yoga, bike club, whatever, just interact with people that doesn't involve talking about work. and sitting home and playing video games while good, isn'…

>co-workers aren't friends, bosses aren't friends, clients aren't friends, work relationships aren't friends.

It really saddens me whenever I see this (apparently common) sentiment on HN. Through every job I've had, I've met some of my very best life-long friends. My wedding party is over half people that I met at work. A couple of my former bosses are people I see every couple of months (pre-covid) and are invited to my wedding. Even one of my past clients is someone that I keep in touch with regularly (for nothing related to work).

Not everyone at work is going to become your best friend, but if you're automatically assuming that anyone you meet through your job is completely "off limits" for friendship, you're really hurting yourself. I can't imagine working at a place like that.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#68

Post by leetcrew »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #27
geerlingguy wrote: post #7

WFH saves money for the company, I just hope that some of the expensive (to the company) perks like prime real estate, free meals, exercise programs, etc. can be translated into at least a minimal budget per employee of: Internet connection reimbursement, annual budget for workspace improvements (ideally with a large initial budget, like $1000 or more for desk, monitor, chair, etc.), and possibly some other perks. Bu…

Wouldn't it be easier to compensate for these costs via salary increases? Not everyone will have the same needs, and attempting to track everyone's expenses seems more complicated than necessary. Although, come to think of it, it might make sense to mark some amount of money as an "equipment stipend" or similar on paychecks. That way, it's clear to both parties what the funds are intended for, even if there's no actu…

paying it out as salary is less tax efficient. simply marking it as "equipment stipend" would probably not be enough to prevent it from being counted as income under tax law. if you already have accountants to track business expenses, it's probably more efficient to do whatever the minimum amount of expense tracking is needed to make it a non-taxed expense. plus if you give everyone a budget, there's always the chance that some of them won't spend all of it each year.

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#69

Post by wffurr »

rogerkirkness wrote: post #26
geerlingguy wrote: post #7

WFH saves money for the company, I just hope that some of the expensive (to the company) perks like prime real estate, free meals, exercise programs, etc. can be translated into at least a minimal budget per employee of: Internet connection reimbursement, annual budget for workspace improvements (ideally with a large initial budget, like $1000 or more for desk, monitor, chair, etc.), and possibly some other perks. Bu…

We give people $5k for setup (includes PC, though), reimburse cell and internet (and ask them to upgrade) and basically spare no expense on webcam, lighting and ethernet setup.

Ethernet setup - do you hire techs and electricians to run cabling?

The biggest issue with me for WFH has been the quality of my internet connection and it was entirely on me to get Comcast to come fix my lines and run my own ethernet to my basement "office".

Re: Dropbox Converts to Permanent WFH

#70

Post by almost_usual »

christiansakai wrote: post #32

Curious, what makes this move (and all the rest of the WFH companies) permanent? Won't in the future when things go back to normal the cities will pressure the companies to have their employees go back into offices to make the economy moving? You know, coffee shops, restaurants, etc need to survive.

I would think San Francisco would be the only city really in trouble right now.
Post reply on HN