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Coinbase will be a remote-first company
111–120 of 154 posts
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#112SV companies coming out as remote-friendly is odd in one way. Outside SV there are tons of companies that are remote, and they make no big fuss about it. With corona, so many more people started working remotely, even in companies that you 'd never expect they would. And they made no big deal of it. Seems like SV has been particularly reluctant to go remote (despite making the tools for it!) , for reasons that are not really well undestood. Perhaps they don't want capital to be decentralized or they somehow think there's something magical about the place.
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
A bit OT, but you mentioned you are now living in Indonesia, and I gather you're a US citizen - can I ask what permit/visa you are on, or are you doing "visa runs" and staying on a holiday visa?
I've tried a few, haha - Tourist Visa (30 days) - Visa On Arrival (30 days + 30 days extension) - Social Visa (180 days) - Business Visa (Valid for 1 year, but max 60 days at a time) - Bonus Visa: Emergency Visa for COVID-19 (Unknown - We're allowed to stay until they lift the restriction. Not much info right now, just know I'm legally allowed to be here even though I've overstayed my current 60 days on the Business…
How do you deal with taxes in a distributed team like yours? I was looking into doing something similar to what you are doing but it seems like the complexities involved with taxation are enormous as you would need to pay corporate tax in every country you live in since the "place of effective management" of the company is shifting every time. Feels like this is a ticking time bomb and that you're opening yourself up for a major liability in the future if you are not careful.
Might be different for SaaS companies though where servers are distributed, haven't looked into that.
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#114First Twitter, now Coinbase. Looks like Christmas is coming early this year!
Square as well, which is a much bigger deal than Coinbase.
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#115I'm really curious, how many people actually prefer WFH permanently vs. just having the flexibility to WFH when wanted. If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job a long time ago, but I enjoy going to office and there is a lot of benefits that you don't get from being remote 100%. I've also made very good friends at work and I see my coworkers as much more than just another GitHub ac…
I have zero desire to go into an office. Ever.
Very happy WFH, and have.. on and off, for years. Sometimes self-employed.
Also like part time digital nomad-ing.
Companies that are WFH friendly tend to have less meeting waste and office culture time wasting. The last company I spent time at had a nice building but horrible amenities. The kitchens were swampy and busy, meeting rooms difficult to schedule, inaccessible VPs who were always in meetings, etc. because decisions took forever the workforce also spent a lot of time waiting, and the socializing was endless. I just find less of that when working for a company that has tuned away from that.
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#116I'm really curious, how many people actually prefer WFH permanently vs. just having the flexibility to WFH when wanted. If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job a long time ago, but I enjoy going to office and there is a lot of benefits that you don't get from being remote 100%. I've also made very good friends at work and I see my coworkers as much more than just another GitHub ac…
I have zero desire to go into an office. Ever. Very happy WFH, and have.. on and off, for years. Sometimes self-employed. Also like part time digital nomad-ing. Companies that are WFH friendly tend to have less meeting waste and office culture time wasting. The last company I spent time at had a nice building but horrible amenities. The kitchens were swampy and busy, meeting rooms difficult to schedule, inaccessible…
there’s a difference between being remote and knowing most coworkers are in one location and time zone and being remote first and having everyone in multiple time zones. I assume most who choose to be “remote” will stay in the US, but if “remote first” ends up being a dozen time zones there is no advantage to that at all, in fact it just becomes a massive scheduling headache.
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#117I have trouble scheduling meetings between colleagues on the west coast and east coast as is. With a “remote first” company where some choose to move abroad potentially (though suspect most would stay in the US) scheduling meetings sounds like a complete nightmare. There’s no advantage to that at all.
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#118I'm really curious, how many people actually prefer WFH permanently vs. just having the flexibility to WFH when wanted. If I wanted to stay home forever I'd have just taken a remote consulting job a long time ago, but I enjoy going to office and there is a lot of benefits that you don't get from being remote 100%. I've also made very good friends at work and I see my coworkers as much more than just another GitHub ac…
I've been WFH for over five years and I've turned down several opportunities to work in an office for significantly more money.
Agency is worth a lot to me.
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#119Additional remote positions do not make a company remote-first any more than additional @media queries make a desktop website mobile-first. To understand what real “remote first” might mean, let’s define the status quo: “in-person first”. To me, in-person-first companies are those in which being a remote employee means hampered career potential, and mingling with the right people at the headquarters is sooner or late…
Brian calls this out and describes how Coinbase plans to do this in the “This will require a huge shift in how we do things. How will we get there?“ section. > To address all of these, we will form a cross-functional team to oversee this transition. This group will identify the changes we must make to become a remote-first company (e.g., around people management, recruiting/talent, culture and connection, and documen…
This would work for a different definition of “remote-first”.
In the definition I believe makes sense there is just one defining trait, and the author manages to tiptoe around it.
It’s unclear whether the changes promised are cosmetic (to convince remote workers they aren’t disadvantaged) or fundamental (actually making remote staff equivalent or even prioritized first before on-location staff).
Re: Coinbase will be a remote-first company
#120Don't forget - if you can do your job from your home, someone else can do your job from their home.