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Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

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Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#51
post #8

> You can move anywhere in the country you work in and your compensation won’t change. Starting in June, we’ll have single pay tiers by country for both salary and equity. If your pay was set using a lower location-based pay tier, you’ll receive an increase in June. I wonder how this will change things for companies like Figma, which allow full remote, but pay remote workers less.

I wonder how this will change for the calculations of Ligma and the DN ratio.

They will probably be more like fromunda.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#52
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So will housing costs. The problems facing SF, Seattle, LA will spread to smaller towns. SF, Seattle, LA, will continue to be expensive because people spend $$$$$$ to live there for reasons other than tech jobs. Be careful what you wish for. I live in the Seattle metro, and would live nowhere else in the country, for what its worth. You already see this happening in rural communities outside of big cities. "Tech-bro"…

Your logic doesn't really track. People move from HCOL to LCOL, so LCOL becomes more expensive. Yet the HCOL areas continue to go up too? Also why does public transit matter in a WFH/remote world? Seems to obviate it to a large degree, e.g. subway in NYC, which while used for many things, was majority used for commuting. It was losing large amounts of money even before the pandemic hit

People in hcol cities still need to move around. People from outside of the country move to hcol cities because of their reputation. Rich people live in hcol places because they can.

My logic doesn’t really need to track with whatever you are talking about- look at the cost of housing in high cost of living places; has it gone down during the last two years of pandemic? Has literally -everyone- becoming a remote worker driven down the cost of housing? No; it has made it worse.

Is it cheaper to live anywhere on the planet now than it was 2,5,10 years ago?

Take for instance where I am from- Kalamazoo, Michigan. This is a great town I love with all of my heart but have no wish to live there. Houses are difficult and expensive to buy there! And compared to Seattle it is pennies. Wages aren’t rising in Kalamazoo to match the money coming in: but houses aren’t getting cheaper in Seattle either.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#53
> While you’ll be responsible for getting proper work authorization, we’re actively partnering with local governments to make it easier for more people to travel and work around the world. Today, 20+ countries offer remote work visas, and more are in the works. While working from different locations isn’t possible for everyone, I hope everyone can benefit from this flexibility when the time is right.

I think currently this is a big caveat. Getting a work permit in other countries is not that easy, even for Americans or other countries with more prestigious passports. Maybe with AirBnB clout it is easier than without but I'd say it's still quite an issue.

That being said, I'm really excited for what the future could provide with AirBnB focusing on this. Maybe it will be easier not just for Americans and the like to work in other countries but I really hope it will be easier for others from places such as Africa and Latin America to work in Europe and the US as well.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#55
post #40
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on scale. I moved during my last job, post-COVID, and the HR department has to make sure the state I was moving to was approved. If not, I was going to have to switch to contracting (fewer hours, fewer employer/employee type rules, more rigidly defined tasks, etc.) because the cost of setting up payroll and taxation in another state was too onerous for just one person, even at the higher levels of the deve…

Your company could've solved this with using a solution from ADP, gusto, rippling, and the shit ton of other companies to do this.

They used ADP for payroll. I have to believe if it was as simple as checking a box they would have just done it.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#56
post #38
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually - and it might take a recession - the downside of “work from anywhere” will be that companies can “hire from anywhere”. That means the Bay Area salary you previously enjoyed may be knocked down through greater wage competition.

And then another company will pop up and pay more. The thing is, we're used to the high pay now. Cut that and you're gonna cut efficiency. It's going to be hard to justify it. Create bad will with your money makers good luck getting anywhere realistically.

The engineers in less expensive locales are not used to the high pay. Even without remote, my team is pushed to hire in the offices outside the Bay Area because engineers demand less money and retention is higher.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#57
post #37
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Friends, family, kids, not having all your stuff, cultural and language barriers, etc… It’s pretty obvious why this doesn’t work for a large portion of people. I am glad for the child free and those who have little need for stuff - but it’s just not… realistic for the rest of us (who are the overwhelming majority of the population). It’s good for that niche 22-28 crowd.

It's actually pretty economical to have a second home in Latin America, with copies of all your creature comforts there. Kids get multicultural friends, new language, and much wider perspective on the world.

What about school?

It’s nice for summer break but it’s really hard to take kids out of school or to switch schools mid year.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#58
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by my employer, small businesses are able to have their payroll companies take care of all that hassle without much cost, so it’s not really a problem.

It depends on scale. I moved during my last job, post-COVID, and the HR department has to make sure the state I was moving to was approved. If not, I was going to have to switch to contracting (fewer hours, fewer employer/employee type rules, more rigidly defined tasks, etc.) because the cost of setting up payroll and taxation in another state was too onerous for just one person, even at the higher levels of the deve…

That's just HR being lazy. The process for handling it is an afternoon of filling out some state forms and handing them off to the payroll company.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#59

For companies like this that profess to care about their employees (and I believe them), what’s the justification for paying less in e.g. London than USA given London is just as expensive? Will progressive companies start adjusting pay according to cost of living rather than the local labor market?

The article explicitly says they’re paying everyone the same pay across localities now.

But for the many company’s that don’t, the justification is simply that the cost of Human resources is not based around output but around market dynamics like other resources. Fresh fruit in Japan costs more than it does in California not because the Japanese fruit is better per se, but because the cost of production is higher.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#60
post #38
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually - and it might take a recession - the downside of “work from anywhere” will be that companies can “hire from anywhere”. That means the Bay Area salary you previously enjoyed may be knocked down through greater wage competition.

And then another company will pop up and pay more. The thing is, we're used to the high pay now. Cut that and you're gonna cut efficiency. It's going to be hard to justify it. Create bad will with your money makers good luck getting anywhere realistically.

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