Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

news.airbnb.com

211–220 of 736 posts

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#211
> The best people live everywhere, not concentrated in one area.

Meaning that the best people are nomadic because its such a common choice amongst the best people, and would be a common choice among people with a choice. This is the experience they have with recruiting, and the CEO then pretends its because of a diverse pool of people that happen to live in a variety of towns where they stay all the time.

Just helping someone read between the lines!

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caveat emptor indeed. Most folks will end up working on tourist visas which is explicitly not allowed around most of the world. I work at a remote first company and HR have given a nod and a wink to this, but with the requirement that you maintain a permanent address and pay taxes in a country where they have an office.

>> Most folks will end up working on tourist visas which is explicitly not allowed around most of the world. Are you sure this is the case? You’re not allowed to get hired locally but I believe you can work online for a company based in your country of residence provided you don’t stay long enough to become a resident of the new country (which you can’t on a tourist visa). I visited Canada for 6 months on a tourist v…

Canada is one of the exceptions. If I as a Canadian tried to approach CBP with that intention then I wouldn’t be admitted.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#213
> 2. 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 if an Airbnb employee's pay was set using a higher location-based pay tier, would that be down adjusted, conversely? A single pay tier in U.S. means there are wide pay gaps between San Francisco, California vs. Billings, Montana for the same skill set/job role to be reconciled, correct? It only makes sense to me that they aren't adjusting everyone to the Silicon Valley pay rate in June.

Can someone share lights on how that single pay tier for a country would work?

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I still can't believe there's no catch Do you believe that remote work is a net gain for society but is a net negative for many individuals?

I think this depends largely on whether you live alone. I would never go back to an office, even part time. One of my best friends lives by himself and struggled hard during the covid-induced requirement to work from home. Much like schools double as a day care for children, work often doubles as a social club for adults.

Even then, I think remote work can be a gain...but companies should be providing stipends/reimbursement for coworking spaces rather than investing in offices. Then the org still has to learn to function remotely, but enables people to connect with others through the social construct of 'work', without most of the downsides, a bunch of new upsides,and missing few of the upsides of being in an office with your actual colleagues.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#215

This is incredible, and everything that any remote worker has asked for. I hope others will follow their lead.

It is, and it’s pretty much what Shopify has announced more than a year ago. Nice to see other big names joining this trend.

Including the 90 day almost anywhere thing. Except for notable exceptions like North Korea, Iran, California, and New York.

The latter two are for tax reasons of course. Still made me chuckle though.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to this office one day a week. But guys in the neighboring cubicles were playing soccer. Not all day but during times of the day. They seriously had a soccer-ball they played with. I didn't know if I should laugh or cry but it was definitely a detriment to productivity. Collaboration. Soccer yeah

You could request them to not to play and be quiet, right.

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not. The kind of people who play soccer at work will definitely listen to you when you ask them not to do that.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#217
post #205

I'm kinda of curious how this works if you are remote: "Most of you should expect to gather in person every quarter for about a week at a time. Some roles, especially senior roles, will be expected to gather more often. We’ll do our best to define windows when most large team off-sites will occur and give you plenty of notice so you can make it work with personal and family plans." Is this like just plan to be in the…

> If its the latter then that seems like it might be a non-starter for people with families. If you can't make the time to spend a few days a quarter with your workmates in exchange for the most generous and fair remote working package then perhaps you're not a good fit for Airbnb. Which is totally fair. But they're not exactly taking the piss here. For many (many) people a week long retreat is a perk not a burden.

Haha - I hear you - its a treat if you are single or a DINK (dual income no kids) and need some solo social time. Especially if Monday and Friday are travel days.

But if you have a family you actually like/love - then a full week away really is a non-starter. Especially if its Sunday night and Saturday morning travel. School plays and parent teacher conferences don't get planned based on the AirBNB week long retreat schedule.

And if you are in a dual income family with the stereotypical two kids - if both of you guys are in similar work situations - then on your "on" week - you're gonna be the one doing 2 school pickups and all after school driving.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#218

I'm kinda of curious how this works if you are remote: "Most of you should expect to gather in person every quarter for about a week at a time. Some roles, especially senior roles, will be expected to gather more often. We’ll do our best to define windows when most large team off-sites will occur and give you plenty of notice so you can make it work with personal and family plans." Is this like just plan to be in the…

>If its the former, then that seems sort of like hybrid work just 1 week per 13 week versus 2-3 day per 5 day where you should probably stick to within 1-2 hour commute of your local AirBNB office.

>If its the latter then that seems like it might be a non-starter for people with families.

And that's okay! If people don't like it or can't make it work with their lifestyle, they don't have to work there

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#219
post #80

I like that he specifically mentioned open floor plans. This is the number one reason why I don't want to return to the office. I kinda do want to go back. But I need my privacy and some quiet. I can't do the open floor plan ever again.

It always annoyed me that they couldn't even be honest and say it was save rent, they had to make it seem like open floor plan was a positive thing because it "increases collaboration" It's not enough you want to be cheap but you want to make it seem like you're doing it for our benefit.

Amen.

Nobody has ever proved any benefits to open plan offices. Their pathologies however are well documented e.g. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.023...

Teams can thrive in same room. High cadence communication needs same room (NASA flight control). If the work is not actually about a team delivering value together - concretely, and the only rationale for open space is "hypothetically it would be nice if they collaborated more" open office will create negative multipliers to everything (except facility costs).

The pathology is statistical. On average open offices are bad. Individuals can love and thrive in open offices. I suppose that's why it's so hard to kill them - you can always find a few persons who claim honestly it's the best place for them.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#220

>Most companies don’t do this because of the mountain of complexities with taxes, payroll, and time zone availability, but I hope we can open-source a solution so other companies can offer this flexibility as well. I think this is a genius growth play for Airbnb. Make it easier for _other_ companies to operate in a similar way so that _their_ employees can travel and live in an... Airbnb! Next, they should lobby to g…

I'm not an immigration/tax lawyer and could be completely wrong but if you're from EU/US/UK/AUS etc I'm fairly sure you can work in another one of those countries for up to 90 days (and sometimes upto 183) without paying tax there or getting a work visa - as long as you're still resident and being paid in your home country under the Visa Waiver program.

I've worked in NY offices and got paid in UK (admittedly a while ago and for less than 90 days) - but can't see why working in an Airbnb would be different.

Has anyone experience of this recently?

Post reply on HN