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Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

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Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#61
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time zones and expected levels of education are still significant factors. You generally don't want to be hiring people from regions with a substandard education system - and if they're in another time zone they can spend all night ruining your day before you even start work.

> they can spend all night ruining your day before you even start work. Or they can be saving your service in emergency while you stay in bed. I'm not sure why you'd expect a different time zone to mean lower skills than yours.

I'm not - I'm saying that when it's a factor it's a big problem.

I've dealt with entire offices of people that were problematic - you could tell when they came in, because builds broke universally in the next half an hour.

And that was right at the end of the day.

From half four 'till half five I spent my time fucking about rolling back commits and sending emails around the world to tell people to sort their shit out.

Yes, there're regions where that's not a problem - the guys in our Poland office had their shit together, but it's not universal.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just responding only to open positions mentionning remote work or stating that you want remote only to the thousands of head hunters in linkedin is enough.

What if no headhunters in your area have jobs that offer remote work?

[deleted]

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#63
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they can spend all night ruining your day before you even start work. Or they can be saving your service in emergency while you stay in bed. I'm not sure why you'd expect a different time zone to mean lower skills than yours.

I'm not - I'm saying that when it's a factor it's a big problem. I've dealt with entire offices of people that were problematic - you could tell when they came in, because builds broke universally in the next half an hour. And that was right at the end of the day. From half four 'till half five I spent my time fucking about rolling back commits and sending emails around the world to tell people to sort their shit out…

That sounds like a management issue. You've got people being counterproductive who were hired, given tasks/permissions at inappropriate skill level and are not being dealt with appropriately. That's really not related to time zone in any way.

Sure, it impacts your situation temporarily, but you could experience the same thing from local people working night shift. Let's keep in mind where the responsibility for solving the situation long-term really is.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#64
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time zones and expected levels of education are still significant factors. You generally don't want to be hiring people from regions with a substandard education system - and if they're in another time zone they can spend all night ruining your day before you even start work.

> they can spend all night ruining your day before you even start work. Or they can be saving your service in emergency while you stay in bed. I'm not sure why you'd expect a different time zone to mean lower skills than yours.

Yep. When I was working with a very geographically distributed team, I loved being able to file a bug in the end of the workday, and have a fix ready for deployment by the time I opened my laptop next morning.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#65

It's a balance, isn't it? - People who work from home have more time, maybe an entire 10 hours a week for some people, measured from when you are able to start work. In high autonomy roles, you feel some ownership over your work and you are happy to share some of that 10 hours with work. - If you are set up to work from home, you can finish off bits and pieces when you find the time. So you're also happy to share som…

My company has been remote even before COVID. They had twice a year gatherings that became once a year as they got bigger. Everyone spent most of the time socializing. It was cool to get to know your online coworkers face to face and you didn't see them everyday so you spent a lot of time socializing. You want tu make the most of it. IMO it works quite well to strike a balance.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#66
post #17

Let's not forget that the Airbnb CEO has vested interest in expansion of remote work. This means more digital nomads and folks who travel to work from anywhere, which benefits the Airbnb Network.

Better to have a new world order than going to someone's building to use the internet. We have the internet now so yeah. Doing a team meet up every quarter is great. Don't need to do it like every Mon-Fri tho that's just not productive.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no wide mandated EU stance on this. Hugely depends on your country. I work in Austria and most companies have mandatory office days due to outdated employment and insurance laws that discourage WFH, and micromanaging asshole company bosses who think that because they can't see you sitting at your desk then you must be slacking off at home on their dime, so they bullshit you and brainwash youngsters with "WFH…

But you can work in remote companies in different EU countries..

No, not really. Austrian labor laws says if you work with an employment contract, then your employer must have a legal presence in Austria to pay Austrian employer taxes and conform to Austrian labor laws, and no company wants to do that. There are some middle-men companies to interface this but they take a deep cut and not everyone want to deal with that hassle.

So your other option is a B-2-B contract but then you could end up paying higher taxes and now you don't even get the included healthcare and pension contributions, and don't get any of the perks an employee gets like mandatory 25 vacation days, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, etc. You're on your own, just you and your money having to pay for everything privately even after you paid a bunch in taxes.

And fully EU remote companies get huge amounts of applications, hundreds per open position, that it's nearly impossible to stand out if you're not an experienced senior as you're competing with people from lower CoL areas with much lower B-2-B taxes, making it not worth it for you if you live here and don't cash in over six figures to cover your loss.

EU-wide employment is still not a thing, as you're still locked-in and tied to the tax and legal system of your country of residence and its employment laws.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#69
post #29
post #24

Perhaps he should put his money where his mouth is: https://careers.airbnb.com/positions/ Because "US, except these states" isn’t exactly hiring "from anywhere".

Time zones and expected levels of education are still significant factors. You generally don't want to be hiring people from regions with a substandard education system - and if they're in another time zone they can spend all night ruining your day before you even start work.

Then how about hiring people in Canada? Unless Canada somehow has worse education system than the US?

Or, if it’s really only about education systems, Finland?

Seriously, if it’s only about education, you can do better than the US.

Re: Brian Chesky: Ability to hire from anywhere is more valuable than in-office work

#70
post #24

Perhaps he should put his money where his mouth is: https://careers.airbnb.com/positions/ Because "US, except these states" isn’t exactly hiring "from anywhere".

There is a reasonable difference between anywhere and everywhere. Setting up shop in every state can be a big legal pain, especially if you don't expect many employees there or the particular state has more difficult rules to comply with. Doing so is in no way a requirement for what they are talking about, which is not hiring for having people come in to the office. On the flipside I've been able to convince companie…

I would agree with that.

Except the guy touts the merits of hiring from anywhere. He seems to think he’s somehow better than all the others he criticises (I, personally, favour remote work. Just not holier-than-thou hypocrites).

All while his very own company hires from anywhere. Except outside the US. Except in one state out of ten.

If hiring people "from anywhere" is so great, and if even Basecamp can surmount the legal hurdles of hiring people from anywhere, what’s Airbnb’s excuse?

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