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70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

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Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because everyone who seriously invests money in businesses knows that there’s a performance hit you take as a remote company. People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason. Engineering is one segment where this penalty seems to be lower. However, engineers seem to be unable to understand that every other function functions better in person. The tradeoff you’re hoping to make is that the…

This. As someone who works remotely and loves it, I’ve observed this on HN for years. It’s like engineers can’t (or won’t?) acknowledge that other roles in an organization go beyond staring at lines of code on a computer screen. Hell, even product managers I know like coming in to an office to collaborate on the big whiteboard wall they can’t fit inside their home.

And even within the engineering roles, the more senior you are the less your job is about staring at a screen, and the more it benefits from face-to-face collaboration.

I've actually considered taking a pay cut just so I can go back to slinging code and not worrying about much else.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#82

Is it conceivable that the attraction of the Bay Area will steadily decline as a result? Or most people here still expect it to recover once offices are open again and life is back to normal? I love the climate myself. But on this very forum every other day people from CA discuss things which don't exactly justify 10% of income lost. In addition to the usual RE prices, AP classes, and surge in crime anecdata I see cu…

I don't see that happening. Tech jobs aside, the Bay Area is still a very desirable place to live, and has been so long before Silicon Valley was a thing. Software engineers moving out of the area will create a gap that others will very happily fill in.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#83
post #80

I turned on messages (and InMail) on LinkedIn 48 hours ago out of sheer morbid curiosity as to what would happen. At last count I received 124 new messages from recruiters. It's insane how thirsty they are right now. As for the positions; I'm being offered 40-60% of my current salary, and they're in the same range below someone with the same amount experience in the industry niche I inhabit. (That's a pretty good ind…

124 messages in 48 hours?

I felt overwhelmed processing with my 5 a day, haha.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#84

Is it conceivable that the attraction of the Bay Area will steadily decline as a result? Or most people here still expect it to recover once offices are open again and life is back to normal? I love the climate myself. But on this very forum every other day people from CA discuss things which don't exactly justify 10% of income lost. In addition to the usual RE prices, AP classes, and surge in crime anecdata I see cu…

I intentionally avoid companies based in the Bay Area (SF) even being remote. The hoops that the State of CA makes employees jump through yearly is annoying at best.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#85
The office-to-WFH transition was fairly seamless for most engineering folk I know (outside of the psychological impact). On the other hand, many other roles such as product management and design benefit greatly from f2f meetings and whiteboarding sessions.

As a result, while I commend the overall increase in remote work, such roles should be thought out carefully as opposed to "let's offer remote work options just because everybody else is".

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#86

Are there any startups attempting to sort out the tax situation when working from different places. It would involve a lot of figuring out with governments but as things stand I think being a digital nomad is going to be done semi illegally. I would definitely sign up and pay my fair share to the correct jurisdiction.

There are co-employers like Trinet, which allow a company to piggy back off their payroll infrastructure. So you have an operational employer and an HR, pay, and benefits employer.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#87

I wonder if this will last after the pandemic is over. If if ever ends.

I'd say the pandemic only accelerated the trend which was already in place. My company is headquartered in the Bay Area and the majority of the staff live here, but over the last ~4 years the bulk of our engineering hiring (I'd say over 80%) has been in other offices.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#89

I honestly don't understand how any startup can even hope to compete if they don't offer remote options. Hiring is incredibly tight right now, and I'm sure glad my options are "anybody within ~2 timezones" over basically only people within a 15 mile radius of my office because traffic is horrendous in my city. Not to mention, how have companies not realized how to build robust remote company cultures over the past 2…

Because everyone who seriously invests money in businesses knows that there’s a performance hit you take as a remote company. People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason. Engineering is one segment where this penalty seems to be lower. However, engineers seem to be unable to understand that every other function functions better in person. The tradeoff you’re hoping to make is that the…

There’s also the mechanical money aspect behind it, if you pay bay area money to someone who lives in Idaho Falls, at some point they’ll be like “well my house is paid off my retirement money is full and life costs nothing here and I already live here, why would I work here 60 hours a week when I could enjoy life?”. Doesn’t happen the same with your bay area employees.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#90

I honestly don't understand how any startup can even hope to compete if they don't offer remote options. Hiring is incredibly tight right now, and I'm sure glad my options are "anybody within ~2 timezones" over basically only people within a 15 mile radius of my office because traffic is horrendous in my city. Not to mention, how have companies not realized how to build robust remote company cultures over the past 2…

Because everyone who seriously invests money in businesses knows that there’s a performance hit you take as a remote company. People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason. Engineering is one segment where this penalty seems to be lower. However, engineers seem to be unable to understand that every other function functions better in person. The tradeoff you’re hoping to make is that the…

> Because everyone who seriously invests money in businesses knows that there’s a performance hit you take as a remote company.

Yet, VC investments and returns soared in the last two years they were all working remote.

> Engineering is one segment where this penalty seems to be lower. However, engineers seem to be unable to understand that every other function functions better in person.

Sales, Marketing and Customer Support departments in typical tech companies have had a sizeable fraction of their employees located outside the office for some time now, long before Engineering.

Office work aids productivity of some functions. There is no good reason, IMO, to make sweeping universal statement about productivity.

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