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

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

news.crunchbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 332 posts

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

#121

Post by e4e78a06 »

paxys wrote: post #82
62951413 wrote: post #71

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.

It is becoming less desirable imo. Wildfire season has replaced summer, crime and cost of living are out of control, and local parks have turned into homeless encampments.

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

#122

Post by toomanyrichies »

I see a ton of comments from people on both sides of the issue, saying that either a) "I can't stand remote work" or b) "I'll only ever work remote from now on". This seems to imply that employees at non-remote-friendly companies will gradually leave to work at remote-friendly ones, and vice-versa.

If that's true, over time we can expect company cultures to start becoming more homogenous (and therefore more strident) in either their pro- or anti-remote work stance. It will be interesting to see what % of companies will fall into each camp.

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

#123

Post by grp000 »

paxys wrote: post #82
62951413 wrote: post #71

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.

Except most industries don't pay as well as IT.

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

#125

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

moises_silva wrote: post #113
tikhonj wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep on saying this but it's just not obviously true. > People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason. Companies do so many suboptimal things that this argument isn't credible. We've seen how many organizations can barely limp through a "digital transformation", so why should we expect them to be operating anywhere near optimally along other axes? They could just as easily be payi…

> People keep on saying this but it's just not obviously true. How is it obviously not true? I mean. I love remote work. I started working remotely way before it was mainstream and I'm advocate for it. I've managed remote teams for many years too. Even so, I can't claim there's no performance hit. I just think the performance hit is small enough that in most cases the benefits for people and businesses outweigh it.

Not obviously true != obviously not true.

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

#126

Post by passivate »

tikhonj wrote: post #74
nostrebored wrote: post #53

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…

People keep on saying this but it's just not obviously true. > People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason. Companies do so many suboptimal things that this argument isn't credible. We've seen how many organizations can barely limp through a "digital transformation", so why should we expect them to be operating anywhere near optimally along other axes? They could just as easily be payi…

>We've seen how many organizations can barely limp through a "digital transformation", so why should we expect them to be operating anywhere near optimally along other axes?

This is a bad argument. Just because they do one thing poorly (in your opinion - no proof) that doesn't mean they're wrong about remote work. Quite ironic considering you called out the other commenter for bad arguments.

In any case, the proof as always is in the results, not internet arguments. If remote work produced better results at lower costs, more companies would adopt it. If remote work is not a competitive edge, then it probably doesn't matter in the larger scheme of things - IMO.

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

#127

Post by mbesto »

nostrebored wrote: post #53
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #40

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

You're right, so let's follow the money...

I regularly work with investors who acquire businesses (AUMs are typically ~$1B, I guess that is serious enough?).

> knows that there’s a performance hit you take as a remote company.

- I don't know a single one who deliberately has said "there is a performance hit if they are remote, we should switch to in office to increase performance".

- I know of no industry study that is able to quantify this.

- "People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason." People have also have been enforcing 40 hour weeks and argue open offices are better for performance. We still haven't agreed either of these are true. Thus, this is a poor argument.

I actually don't have any concrete evidence for one way or the other, but I do know there isn't unequivocal evidence that confirms your statement to be true.

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

#128

Post by Salgat »

avidphantasm wrote: post #98

I get why remote work is popular, and for some tasks/jobs I think it can work well. However, I think in-person interaction is critical for breaking new ground, starting new initiatives, etc. So far, nothing replaces being in the same room hashing out ideas on the whiteboard, etc.

I don't get this because we have some of the most innovative and valuable projects (such as Linux) that have achieved their success through remote work. The problem isn't remote, the problem is corporate culture not adapting to it.

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

#129

Post by mullingitover »

moises_silva wrote: post #113
tikhonj wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep on saying this but it's just not obviously true. > People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason. Companies do so many suboptimal things that this argument isn't credible. We've seen how many organizations can barely limp through a "digital transformation", so why should we expect them to be operating anywhere near optimally along other axes? They could just as easily be payi…

> People keep on saying this but it's just not obviously true. How is it obviously not true? I mean. I love remote work. I started working remotely way before it was mainstream and I'm advocate for it. I've managed remote teams for many years too. Even so, I can't claim there's no performance hit. I just think the performance hit is small enough that in most cases the benefits for people and businesses outweigh it.

How do you balance that against the performance hit of working on-prem?

You can't just hand-wave away the unpaid labor and risk to your life that you undertake with every trip to and from the office. You can't ignore the drive-by conversations you get roped into when you're trying to do head-down work or the overall noise in an office. Yes, in ideal conditions your office might approach what you get working at home, but I've never experienced it, especially given that open plan offices are now an unquestioned default setting.

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

#130

Post by digitalsushi »

I've been wondering if my employer will eventually need to abandon its 5-tier city cost-of-living scale. For the same exact job titles and functions, those of us living in rural areas are paid up to 12% less than people living in cities.

I agree that cities have a higher cost of living, but the people trying to pull me away from my current employer into new remote work don't seem to need to make that distinction!

Post reply on HN