This might surprise you but Americans aren't the only people on this forum.
But I guess it's okay to leave us all out to pasture if it means you can concentrate just a bit more of wealth.
Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
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Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#12Well at least it'll curb some entitlement from the current IT crowd. A lot of IT people making 4x more than people of other professions assume that they are the cream of the crop and sincerely believe that their work is so hard that they deserve to have a 4 hour working day (because it is 'impossible' on being productive for a longer period of time in a day).
No. People in other areas work just as hard, or harder, it's just their industries are not that trendy. Just like IT was in 80s - and developers where geeks who were paid not much more than other white collar jobs.
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#13It's inevitable the playing field will be leveled, and we never deserved the advantage to begin with.
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#14I don't see how this is not already happening pre-WFH: most big tech companies have offices in Ukraine, Belarus, India, China, etc with "low cost" tech workers.
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#15Your post seems more nationalist than anything else. I’ve worked at a geo-distributed company for a long while and let me tell you: The diversity of viewpoints and experiences will make your teams stronger, happier and more resilient. That culture needs to be consciously built though. That won’t happen in and of itself. But it’s so, so worth it. To anyone else reading this: Don’t buy into the "us versus them" rhetori…
That's all well and good until you're the one who loses your job. Then you can root for the non-US worker's family who got your job for half the salary. Enjoy your American-owned employer making more money for its stockholders and executives while it continues not paying taxes, to a country that doesn't federally provide basic social services.
There is something to be said for watching out for your community. The only reason to be hyper-free-market is if you're an owner of the means of production.
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To be clear, I also work for an international company and I have nothing against any colleagues. I simply think it's naive to not be wary of a sudden, further erosion of the middle class if companies dump the US as the primary source of high-skilled work.
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edit: I resent HN throttling posts for 40+ minutes, so I'll respond to corobo here: I am criticizing the US. I am suggesting that American companies will save money while letting their host country rot.
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#16If jobs start going to other countries we should bring them back by investing in education and producing the best devs in the world. If we can't compete, good for whoever beats us.
Trying to hoard the jobs won't work in the long run anyway.
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#17ok, 2005.
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#18This might surprise you but Americans aren't the only people on this forum. But I guess it's okay to leave us all out to pasture if it means you can concentrate just a bit more of wealth.
What is described here is why I am hopeful about wider WFH in USA and general. Precisely because it can result in some jobs moving to poorer countries, including mine.
(I am from Poland and some informatics/programming is outsourced here already from USA)
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#19I think the cat is out of the bag on this one already, regardless of whether "WFH" is here to stay or not.
I can't help but feel a bit sad about it. The pay and perks were honestly obscene(ly good), but the best part was not being treated as expendable. Friends in other career paths talk about horrible managers/PIs/advisors and working conditions in law, academia, etc. I think because it's so hard to hire a good dev, I've been treated really well by my bosses up to this point. Or maybe I got lucky.
Anyway, I hope that doesn't go away just because the talent pool is widening. I liked being treated like a human.
Re: Tell HN: Don't root for WFH, it might destroy well-paying jobs
#20But if you have to live in SF or NYC to earn those salaries, those salaries are not actually that high.
I mean isn't $150k in the Bay Area a poverty wage? Can you get a starter home for less than $1M?
If everyone has to be in one of a few cities to have a good job, the cost of real estate in those cities will explode to the point that it will soak up all that advantage.