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Why is remote work seen as a gift?

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Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#431

Post by prewett »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #181
sokoloff wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a market. Employers and consumers will pay what they have to be satiated. If they can’t afford that, they’ll have to make do with less. If something is priced too high and there are viable alternatives, they’ll consider those alternatives.

"Market" is just another way of saying "Power differential." Most corporate cultures are inherently authoritarian, with money being used as a proxy for power. Empirically there is plenty of evidence that given a choice, many businesses would rather maintain the power differential and complain about "lack of applicants" than increase pay and suffer a corresponding diminution of authority. Stock is an even more specifi…

> "Market" is just another way of saying "Power differential."

Oh come on. This is a cynical or Marxist take, but it's pretty obviously untrue. A flea market, farmers market, FB marketplace doesn't have a substantial power imbalance. A market may have a power imbalance, but it is not required. People can exchange goods/services at equal power, and routinely do so. And if I understand economics correctly, that's the purpose of a "free" market: no artificial power imbalances.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#432

Post by gorgoiler »

pmoriarty wrote: post #256
gorgoiler wrote: post #87

It doesn’t matter where you work, as long as you get the work done Good tech orgs list expectations for each role, and every senior role requires you to be improving the impact of others’ work as well as your own. Clearly that applies to managers — it’s literally their job — but many top IC roles pay the big bucks because you come up with projects and promote them under your own steam. If you can do that all remotely…

What exactly can you do in an office to meet those expectations that you can't do remote?

Look people in the eye.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#433

Post by scotty79 »

ghaff wrote: post #362
scotty79 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Federal obviously. Somebody has to know what's up with all this mess. If I'm from another country government should know that and tax accordingly. I have no idea how placing burden of knowing all this on every single employer helps anybody (except IRS).

In fact, it's much more at the state level. I owe the IRS the same no matter where I live in the US (leaving aside deductions for state and local taxes). But I need state residency for my driver's license and state taxes. The IRS doesn't care if I live in Nevada or California. But California certainly cares if I claim to live in Nevada and actually live in California for 8 months out of the year.

Great so Califonia has business in knowing if some worker lives in California. So they should be the one to ask. Employer doesn't have to know.

Do you report and pay federal taxes and state taxes separately? Or do you just deal with IRS and they forward the docs and the money to the state you live in?

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#434

Post by mejutoco »

claudiawerner wrote: post #310
mejutoco wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO OP is right on the money with the labor theory of value. If the value is what offer and demand agree on, exploitation disappears, in Marx's theoretical model. While I am not an expert, I remember reading about it on "The Classical School: The Turbulent Birth of Economics in Twenty Extraordinary Lives", by Callum Williams. It made sense to me. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/49374783 While linking to the so…

>If the value is what offer and demand agree on, exploitation disappears, in Marx's theoretical model. This is not true; Marx's model of exploitation (known to modern economists as the Profit-Exploitation Correspondence Model (PECP)) does not concern itself with what demand and offer agree on within a labor negotiation. Marx says that workers do not sell their labor, they sell their labor-time (e.g. X units of time/g…

Thanks, that is a clear explanation.

> The discrepancy between the value of the time and the value produced

I am thinking how can one value this time. If it is valued by the market (how much someone is willing to pay for it) we would end up with the same problem, no?

It must be intrinsically valued, I am assuming.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#435

Post by kraquepype »

lampshades wrote: post #314

I wish I had an office to go to. I never leave my house anymore and it is becoming very very old. Before everyone says, “oh, go get some hobbies and live your life, work isn’t here for your social life,” understand that I have young children and no free time. I am nearing middle age in a city I moved to for work. I don’t have the base level of social interaction most people inherit by birth or school and no time to b…

Same here, I've been fully remote since the beginning of 2020 (Covid) and its been a blur. With young children around its difficult to get lost in work, and hobbies are possible but its a hard push to fit them in, so they are relegated to times where things are calm.

Luckily my team was in the office at least 2 days a week prior so I had those connections built up already - it wasn't a huge social hit and still felt those connections through remote communications since the foundation was there. The office had re-opened and in mid-2022 I was able to start going into the office, albeit with no direct coworkers. It was nice to have some kind of routine again.

I recently started a fully position. Its been hard to adjust, and has taken a toll on me. Onboarding went well, but its been tough to get situated with a group of new people that I have had little to no social interaction with. I'm hoping things click soon. There is an optional office space, though no one on my immediate team would be there. I'd like to get some time there once I break out of my rut.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#436

Post by bluefirebrand »

kevinskii wrote: post #418
ARandomerDude wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a senior leader, one of your jobs is to teach the younger folks how to do their jobs efficiently. I'm in the leadership position you describe, and I've found remote work to be amazing for teaching because of screen-sharing. It's so much easier to get the team talking about some code over Teams/Slack/etc. than it is awkwardly huddled around someone's monitor or looking at a TV in the office. Remotely, you're able…

I agree that remote screen sharing can be sufficient, but I'm personally a much more effective mentor in person with lots of whiteboard space.

Is that your opinion or those who you mentor?

In my experience, most people learn much better from being shown concrete examples inside the workspace they already use compared to abstract examples on a whiteboard with lots of lines and arrows.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#437

Post by toast0 »

pjc50 wrote: post #349
franciscop wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it is true, the best you can do is vote with your feet. I have had the situation where I was offered "locally competitive salaries" (not in the USA though), and every time I've rejected it I had a 50%-100% better offer within few weeks . There ARE companies that will pay better and independently of your location, you do need to be good though (as in companies are proactively seeking you out) and keep searching.…

> specially because your marginal tax rate might be already at 50%, evaluate asking for some Stock Options/RSUs/etc. .. where are those tax exempt? In the UK they're treated as income at the time of vesting, which is not unreasonable https://frazerjames.co.uk/rsus-a-tech-employees-guide/

RSUs are US taxable at vesting as ordinary income, so that doesn't really help, no. Stock Options are complicated, but if you follow the right procedures and timelines, can end up taxed as capital gains, which is roughly half the tax rate, although there's a lot more risk there.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#438

Post by lampshades »

kraquepype wrote: post #435
lampshades wrote: post #314

I wish I had an office to go to. I never leave my house anymore and it is becoming very very old. Before everyone says, “oh, go get some hobbies and live your life, work isn’t here for your social life,” understand that I have young children and no free time. I am nearing middle age in a city I moved to for work. I don’t have the base level of social interaction most people inherit by birth or school and no time to b…

Same here, I've been fully remote since the beginning of 2020 (Covid) and its been a blur. With young children around its difficult to get lost in work, and hobbies are possible but its a hard push to fit them in, so they are relegated to times where things are calm. Luckily my team was in the office at least 2 days a week prior so I had those connections built up already - it wasn't a huge social hit and still felt…

I also went fully remote, for the first time, with COVID.

It’s very hard to build connections when starting a remote job. I’ve started two jobs since COVID and still don’t have the connection that I had with the people I worked with before COVID.

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#439

Post by ttymck »

fleddr wrote: post #339

The "return to the office" move is largely management/extrovert bias. Managers collaborate all day long, it's what they do, whilst "workers" tend to be overwhelmed by the many meetings. Further, extroverts get energy out of being around people. Another factor is that some (many) managers frankly have no idea what their employees do. Physical presence management is the coping strategy. That being said, I do agree that…

> It's an open invitation to move your position to the lowest cost country that outputs quality that is acceptable

Haven't we litigated this enough? If outsourcing was so viable and so valuable, it would be done already. Are we supposed to ignore: time zones, language barriers, cultural barriers?

Re: Why is remote work seen as a gift?

#440

Post by ghaff »

scotty79 wrote: post #433
ghaff wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, it's much more at the state level. I owe the IRS the same no matter where I live in the US (leaving aside deductions for state and local taxes). But I need state residency for my driver's license and state taxes. The IRS doesn't care if I live in Nevada or California. But California certainly cares if I claim to live in Nevada and actually live in California for 8 months out of the year.

Great so Califonia has business in knowing if some worker lives in California. So they should be the one to ask. Employer doesn't have to know. Do you report and pay federal taxes and state taxes separately? Or do you just deal with IRS and they forward the docs and the money to the state you live in?

>Do you report and pay federal taxes and state taxes separately?

Yes. They are separate sets of forms that you pay (or get refunded) independently. They're basically unrelated exxcept to the degree that deductions/refunds may come into play.

The employer is making various deductions and payments, e.g. into unemployment, based on the state you live in. So your employer really does need to know your state of residence.

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