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Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

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Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#291
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State taxes are generally not something you want to circumvent. Ps - great baldurs gate 2 ref in your username :)

https://theboatgalley.com/establishing-residency-at-st-brend... This makes Florida your domicile, so no state income taxes (but, of course, you're paying Federal taxes regardless of where you reside in the world). The mail processor in question caters specifically to cruisers/yachties and RVers. Give the address to work and family, no one knows you're living the digital nomad life unless you share. Get a Schwab or Fi…

Is this recommending that you lie and say you live on this island? If lots of people are doing it with the same island, might some tax agency get wise and audit everyone with that address?

I see how one could, in theory, easily get away with a fake residency while remote working, but sharing the same address with many others and posting about it online seems like asking for trouble.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NYC summers are a special kind of hell beyond the heat and humidity That is absolutely wild to me. I also lived in NYC for 10 years, the summers there are magical. The city comes alive in such a unique way, people are outside relaxing in the parks, having backyard and rooftop parties, heading out to the beach on the weekends. There are a bunch of great weekend trips to be had a few hours away by train in Long Islan…

>> NYC summers are a special kind of hell beyond the heat and humidity > That is absolutely wild to me. I also lived in NYC for 10 years, the summers there are magical. This, to me, is a perfect illustration of why the future of work is neither everyone staying remote nor everyone returning to the office. Some individuals thrive in close, convivial environments, others thrive when given the space that only comes with…

The problem is that any environment that allows work from home but has a significant percentage of employees in the office regularly will have a very hard time managing, in my experience.

It’s very hard to maintain the discipline of holding online meetings and documenting all important decisions when enough people are colocated. Face to face bandwidth is so much higher that it’s easy to forget there are a lot of people without that exposure.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't work. As soon as a meeting has 2 people in person, the first time a zoom glitches or a leaf blower is in the background; the 2 in the office will feel disdain for remote. If the office mic in the room only picks up one person, the remote person will be left out; the 2 in office will feel disdain for the remote miscommunication.

Just get rid of all your meeting rooms, and have everyone do the meeting from the desk, so it sucks for everyone. I mean, that's kind of horrific, but it's the sort of thing people are thinking of. The other mechanism is, even if people are in offices, construct teams so everyone is in a different one, and so everything is remote even if you are in an office.

It certainly sucks for everyone sitting at a neighboring desk.

It's horrific, but I expect this to be "accepted" behavior once we return to office.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#294
post #241
post #75

I currently have 10 fully remote engineering jobs. The bar is so low, oversight is non-existent, and everyone is so forgiving for under performance I can coast about 4-8 weeks before a given job fires me. Currently on a $1.5M run-rate for comp this year. And the interviewing process is so much faster today, companies are desperate, it takes me 2-3hrs of total effort to land a new job with thousands to chose from.

How much work are you doing at these 10 companies? Are you writing code or just literally doing nothing?

Yes writing code, I provide enough actual progress that people must assume I'm either extremely methodical or woefully incompetent. I put in about an hour per job per day. I'm logged-in on slack/teams/etc and disable idle indicators. I use a virtual KVM to switch between laptops as needed. The biggest problem I run into is video meetings occurring at the same time, those I usually just disable video and blame it on internet problems.

Many of these positions are mid-to-senior level in "must have" positions like Data Science or Data Engineering where measuring progress can be difficult for even full-time contributors. I target overly funded growth-mode companies where they're focused on adding unnecessary headcount to work on poorly defined projects.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s possible if you become a contractor. That’s what I am now, and I have worked for two companies so far. I live outside the states now. But it does mean dealing with your own taxes, charging a higher rate to compensate for those taxes and other bills, etc. however, I’ve found that I can charge higher and the company can still save money simply because they don’t have to pay for things they would normally pay a per…

Seconded, please share. Do you make significantly more money than full time employee status?

Typically for a freelancer/contractor (as against a consultant) yes but also no. On a nominal hourly or whatever rate you come out ahead, but life can throw you curveballs that mean you don't end up ahead.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should spend some of that money on good legal counsel

Why should they? Unless it's some kind of contract I don't think you can be sued for not doing your job - you can be fired (and likely would be), but incompetence doesn't generally lead to legal problems.

Many employment contracts expressly forbid you from accepting other employment without prior authorization from the company. If his employment contracts contain that provision, then he would definitely be in breach. But... damages would probably be limited to just the salary that the company paid.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A year ago? Sure. Now the market for remote engineers is competitive. I basically eliminated my mortgage by selling and moving. My salary can go way down without affecting my living standards.

Actually at that point you are at the mercy of the local ISP.

You probably already know this but internet outside of the Bay Area is actually really good. We live in the sticks and we can get gigabit.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NYC summers are a special kind of hell beyond the heat and humidity That is absolutely wild to me. I also lived in NYC for 10 years, the summers there are magical. The city comes alive in such a unique way, people are outside relaxing in the parks, having backyard and rooftop parties, heading out to the beach on the weekends. There are a bunch of great weekend trips to be had a few hours away by train in Long Islan…

>> NYC summers are a special kind of hell beyond the heat and humidity > That is absolutely wild to me. I also lived in NYC for 10 years, the summers there are magical. This, to me, is a perfect illustration of why the future of work is neither everyone staying remote nor everyone returning to the office. Some individuals thrive in close, convivial environments, others thrive when given the space that only comes with…

I generally agree with this, but think it falls far outside of the bounds of work (re: "future of work"). I lived in NYC for 13 years, and worked remotely full-time for about 11 of those years. I explicitly lived there because I love the city.

Remote work allows us to live where we want/need and remain productive members of society. I've been working remotely for 20 years, living in wonderful cities the whole time, and I'm not going back any time soon (ideally, ever).

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should they? Unless it's some kind of contract I don't think you can be sued for not doing your job - you can be fired (and likely would be), but incompetence doesn't generally lead to legal problems.

Many employment contracts expressly forbid you from accepting other employment without prior authorization from the company. If his employment contracts contain that provision, then he would definitely be in breach. But... damages would probably be limited to just the salary that the company paid.

Could be seen borderline fraudulent since no employer signing this kind of contract would reasonably expect this behavior. So that could add a criminal element in addition to the civil damages.

Re: Facebook extends its work-at-home policy to most employees

#300
post #189

Speaking as someone who now works remotely permanently, this has been... life-changing. So for 10 years I lived in NYC and--don't get me wrong--there are lots of things I liked about NYC but I'm so over the summers and the winters. Also bear in mind that I think NYC is infinitely better for most people to live in than the Bay Area. But I now live in Florida. It's about the 182nd day in a row where it's been 70-80F. S…

Hey! Are you in Miami by chance!?
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