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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

#331

Post by dboreham »

throwaways885 wrote: post #73
FartyMcFarter wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In particular I'm curious on the impact to junior employees. Some people think that junior people are having trouble learning things when WFH.

As a junior engineer, this is how I felt. Before the pandemic, getting help was as easy as sending a ping and rolling my chair over. Now, ironically, it's far harder to get help, as getting into a meeting (even a short, impromptu one) is a significantly bigger deal. I go into a minor state of social anxiety and just struggle to get anything done for a good 10 minutes before a meeting. Mainly because there's far more…

Send them a zoom link on slack, saying you want their input on something. Clicking on the link is literally their job. Source: I'm often the recipient of those zoom links.

(And if you don't get a satisfactory response, get another job where there are helpful senior staff).

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

#332

Post by esrauch »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #276
esrauch wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not op but have lived in Florida and NYC. I suspect the gap partially relates to the "constructed"/human/social aspects, and not the raw weather itself. A NYC subway car without AC when it's 87 degrees outside is worse than 100° in Florida; Florida is a lot more effective AC, pools/lanais, open spaces.

You wrote: "A NYC subway car without AC" Does that really exist in 2021? (Or even 2001?) I doubt the driver's union would allow it. It would be unsafe.

It's more often one section with broken ac and not the complete train; I assume the drivers have AC even when passengers dont. You can try to move to an adjacent car (which are then correspondingly that much more packed). I've experienced it in both NYC and Boston in the last few years.

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

#333

Post by fishywang »

biztos wrote: post #317
dreyfan wrote: 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.

I get that this is a joke, but — would that be legal in the US? In Germany it definitely would not, at least not without it being specifically allowed by your contract. But maybe in the US, as long as you didn’t have a conflict of interest? Would the amount of total time worked matter? Would doing it in multiple states simultaneously matter?

A typical silicone valley company's contract usually have some clause saying that all your creative work while contracted with the company, even on off hours, belongs to the company. So signing two such contracts with two different companies usually means they both own the code you wrote for both companies, or maybe even trickier legal implications.

Of course you can try to get that clause removed during contract negotiation, but I doubt many people would be successful on that negotiation (you might have better luck to exclude some of your open source contributions).

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

#334

Post by xiphias2 »

magneticnorth wrote: post #12

I am really curious to see where we'll be in a year, two, three down the line wrt remote/office/hybrid work at major companies. This forced experiment has had some surprising outcomes about the effectiveness of remote workplaces, but working from home for only a year, in pandemic conditions, is clearly not the same as indefinitely in normal times. But there's reason to think that may go even better, not worse; I am r…

I care much more about personal relationships than work relationships. For me, as a person who was already working from home my dating and socializing options got much better now that people don't have to work in the office. I can travel together with my significant other much easier as well.

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

#335

Post by sweetcheeks69 »

cletus wrote: 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…

Hope you vote Democrat!

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

#336

Post by bradlys »

cromka wrote: post #316
treis wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not including airfare, food, and meeting space. It might not quite reach $2k but pretty close. But that's likely still cheaper than office space. That ranges anywhere from $20-$70+ per square foot depending on city and how nice it is. So even a tiny desk space is 500-2k a month.

Still, you guys assume this would be within the US, only. Excuse me for saying that, but that's some typical, US-centric kind of thinking. There's really whole world out there. If you're going to go for 2 weeks, go to Asia, South America or Central/South Europe and pay a third of the costs. Heck, do you know how cheap country side airbnbs in Portugal or Italy are? THAT'S how you build lasting memories.

Time becomes expensive then too… Jet lag is also a substantial issue. You have to accommodate the lowest common denominator in these situations. (People who have substantial family, don’t do well with jet lag, and aren’t very fond of long flights in economy)

Personally, 2 weeks is the minimum in my book for any kind of substantial time difference (4+ hours) and substantial flight time (8+ hours each way). I’m sure others feel even more aggressively than I do. I cannot imagine how people with kids would feel. The food and bacteria issues also just make things really challenging for many people.

There’s also the issue that you’re usually there for work, not just fun. Thus, you don’t really get to enjoy the spectacles as much because you’re gonna be doing 40+ hours working. I’ve been in exotic destinations before and had work stuff come up. It is not fun anymore. Terrible if anything. Rather be home than be in amazing place but unable to enjoy it.

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

#337

Post by d110af5ccf »

steelframe wrote: post #237
dheera wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get the job from the bay area and then move. Once you have the job, you're a black box that takes inputs and spits out work outputs in return for a monthly payment, and the company doesn't need to care where you actually are doing the work, as long as the black box works to specs (the JD).

> Get the job from the bay area and then move. What’s to keep you from getting a job that’s ostensibly in Washington state and then moving to California? I believe that’s called, “tax evasion.”

The company might or might not need to pay taxes differently on its end.

On your end, you (the individual) are required to file an income tax return with the state you reside in. If you lie and say you are unemployed that's very obviously fraud.

Whether the company you work for is willing to deal with any extra tax paperwork that might be required if you relocate is of course an open question.

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

#338

Post by peytn »

dreyfan wrote: post #102
magneticnorth wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is fascinating. What's the long-term plan? Save enough on this plan to retire early? Eventually work a smaller number of them "for real"?

It's not very satisfying so definitely not retire early. However, it's a good way to raise the equivalent of a seed round without having to give up any equity and simultaneously execute on practical customer discovery regarding the needs of modern engineering teams in a remote-only world.

You’ve hit the three corners of the Fraud Triangle—opportunity, incentive, rationalization.

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

#339

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

ghaff wrote: post #106
cromka wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I learned more about people that I had spent months zooming/emailing with over the past few weeks talking to them face to face. One thing I thought of that could alleviate this would be the team work getaways. Think 2 weeks away, 3-4 times a year. Obviously not everyone can every join all of them, but I'd imagine most still would do 2. Ideally the families should also be invited. I am sure it would still come out c…

Yeah, as a long-term essentially remote employee, IMO you need to have week-long team meetings. Probably quarterly. I hesitate to require weekends. On the other hand, I have traveling about 130 days per year pre-pandemic.

Why do you need week long meetings ?
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