Live data from Hacker News

Google employees who work from home could lose money

reuters.com

521–530 of 699 posts

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#521
I’m hearing more and more that companies cut compensation based on remote or onsite work.

But what I’ve heard only concerns hiring processes, which is already alarming, whereas this article mentions during-contract salary cut, which I can’t comment on since it is just plain illegal where I am (Europe) and I’m just educated to react very strongly to this madness. See? I just did it :)

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#522
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm used to the conversation in here being extremely US-centric, but realize that this is much less true for European cities with good public transportation. I haven't ever used a car to go to work in my life. I'm also very concerned about this better world where people stay home to save the planet. The common level of social interactions in the modern world is already low enough in my opinion. EDIT: It rarely happen…

I agree with your overall point, but as a (nearly middle aged) American, I've almost never commuted by car or lived in a single family house as an adult. And frankly I'm sick of being lumped in to large generalizations of America that simply don't apply to me or millions of other people living here. The media (including social media, and the internet) largely consists of the most divisive and stereotyped parts of lif…

It's as annoying as the popular misconception that we have any real choices regarding our elected officials and their policies. Uhh, yeah, let me just build a whole slew of candidates from scratch who actually want to do anything about real root cause issues.

Racism is another one. I don't have any fscks left to give for anyone who wants to lecture me on racism in America. Our racial tensions are only visible because we aren't totally marginalizing (or cleansing for that matter) our minority populations.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#525

Companies were never paying based on value provided. They pay market rate which, until recently, was artificially limited to a few expensive markets. With remote, these companies are now able to do what every other large labor driven industry has done and lower their costs by finding labor in cheaper markets.

This. I’ve been saying it all along. This is what is going to happen to all the SV bros on their 6 figure salaries. You’re no better than someone on the other side of the globe who will have lower living expenses. If your employer doesn’t see value in having you on site, location is meaningless. If I were Google I’d start looking aggressively into labour markets that are cheaper but with good education. Poland, Phill…

Engineers in the US are much more expensive but they have experience working in high scale environments that isn't widely available in the markets you are talking about. FAANG companies and well-funded startups aren't going to substitute someone else even if they can theoretically pay 5x less for someone 90% as good.

All these companies care about is being as competitive as possible. They have a pretty much unlimited supply of money, and one of the most primary things driving their business success is how good their engineers are.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#526
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same way oil is priced, at the market clearing rate. Maybe it's $60K/yr and we have happy Indians and Romanians and no Californians.

Yes indeed, at that price you could hoover up all the talent in India, China, Russia, Ukraine etc

You won't get top talent in Ukraine for 60k.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#527

> One Google employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, typically commutes to the Seattle office from a nearby county and would likely see their pay cut by about 10% by working from home full-time, according estimates by the company's Work Location Tool launched in June. > The employee was considering remote work but decided to keep going to the office - despite the two-hour commute. This seems…

>But if you frame it as a 10% pay decrease in exchange for a 20% reduction in how much of your life is devoted to work, it suddenly becomes a lot less palatable.

If some avg Google Seattle employee was making 250k and that got reduced to 225K I don't think their life materially changes in any way. You aren't going to retire significantly faster, you aren't going to be priced out of your home, you aren't going to have to change your lifestyle really in any way I'd think so what's the possible downside?

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#528

I did a search of the comments for "food" before writing this, and I don't think it was adequately covered. I worked at Google 11 1/2 years, and I've been retired 4 years now. I still bemoan the convenience of being able to have whatever food I want for lunch or dinner, just by walking down to a cafe. Yeah, I buy it now, but I'll never have as much variety as Google did. The food costs for Google per employee are not…

Have you heard of the Gervais Principle[1]? [1] https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...

Great article, thanks.

It needs an editor, though. Way too long.

Re: Google employees who work from home could lose money

#530

> One Google employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, typically commutes to the Seattle office from a nearby county and would likely see their pay cut by about 10% by working from home full-time, according estimates by the company's Work Location Tool launched in June. > The employee was considering remote work but decided to keep going to the office - despite the two-hour commute. This seems…

Here is the thing: All of this money as a whole amount makes the choice seem silly. What happens when you factor in cost of living is that the 10% starts growing incredibly fast. If their current spend is 80% of their salary, then the 10% is actually a 50% post-expense difference. Suddenly that drive makes sense.

If you're making 200K plus and spend 80% of your take home you've got serious issues.
Post reply on HN