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Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

businessinsider.com

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Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#141

Post by gamblor956 »

aka1234 wrote: post #136
znpy wrote: post #125

Shopify did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. It's unclear if whether the $1,000 amount is a bonus employees will see in their paychecks, or whether workers will need to expense the items they purchase. Does it make any actual difference? Yes, it could theoretically impact somebody's tax bracket, but do we need that level of detail? Also someone is blaming a lot of companies with the "why wait?"…

Not to be glib, the difference between $1k on the check and $1k expensed doesn't make a difference if you're well paid. If you're considering how it'd impact your tax bracket, it doesn't matter to you. But for the customer support reps? It might make all the difference in the world. Most of those employees won't have an extra $1k laying around that they can forego until finance gets around to finally reimbursing them…

Tax guy. I second this comment. It makes a huge difference for the non programmers how this is done from both an employee cash flow and tax perspective.

At my previous job, I was asked to go to an international networking event in Europe. The firm would have reimbursed my expenses. I was prepared to go until I discovered that the trip would cost $22,000. The firm wasn't quick enough with reimbursements for me to justify paying for it upfront, so I had to pass.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#142

Post by jldugger »

grogenaut wrote: post #44
jldugger wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly the monitors I have at work are 1k each =(

Why are you wasting money? You can get 5 27" monitors for the price of one of those and 3 or 4 43" 4ks for the price of both.

Because LG 5ks are literally the only choice of external display my employer provides. On the plus side, they may be cheaper in bulk.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#143

Post by xyzzyz »

aka1234 wrote: post #136
znpy wrote: post #125

Shopify did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. It's unclear if whether the $1,000 amount is a bonus employees will see in their paychecks, or whether workers will need to expense the items they purchase. Does it make any actual difference? Yes, it could theoretically impact somebody's tax bracket, but do we need that level of detail? Also someone is blaming a lot of companies with the "why wait?"…

Not to be glib, the difference between $1k on the check and $1k expensed doesn't make a difference if you're well paid. If you're considering how it'd impact your tax bracket, it doesn't matter to you. But for the customer support reps? It might make all the difference in the world. Most of those employees won't have an extra $1k laying around that they can forego until finance gets around to finally reimbursing them…

It makes large difference if you're well paid. You can only buy ~$650 worth of stuff from $1k in paycheck, but you can expense full $1k of stuff in the other scenario. Of course, you could argue that if you're well paid, you can spend additional $500 of your own gross pay to top up that $650 to full $1k, but clearly Shopify doesn't think this way, because if it did, it wouldn't give any extra $1k in the first place, and just tell their employees to get what they need and pay for it themselves.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#144

Post by Polylactic_acid »

imtringued wrote: post #77
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used chairs seem to be plentiful. It seems that whenever a business moves office they just throw away or sell for very cheap all of their chairs and tables.

Selling for cheap basically means they want to get rid of it but not pay for disposal.

Which is good for me because they are almost always still in really good condition.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#145

Post by eBombzor »

jp_sc wrote: post #131
eBombzor wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still very clacky if you bottom them out which 99% of people do. Mechanical keyboards, unfortunately, do not have a place in the office space.

You can add soft rubber rings to dampen that sound almost completely: https://www.wasdkeyboards.com/cherry-mx-rubber-o-ring-switch...

No they don't. I have 40A-Rs on my MX Browns at home and while they do make a significant difference (especially under a large mousepad), they are still louder than butterfly switches by a wide margin.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#146

Post by wyclif »

fyp wrote: post #107
cpr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://madisonseating.com has been a reliable supplier for years.

I highly don't recommend buying from them. I bought a steelcase leap v2 in platinum color and it's clear that the base of the chair is a cheap knockoff. Crappy silver spraypaint that flakes, the wheels barely work, the piston was broken on delivery (which they did replace for free). I've had problems with the chair being too low at max height and I am a short guy. I still don't know if it's their cheap base that's th…

Thanks for saying this. Before I read your comment, I thought they were selling opened box or used Steelcase chairs, but 100% authentic. There's nothing on the site that I could find that discloses that parts of the chairs are not authentic. If that's the case, it's super shady of them.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#147

Post by QuinnWilton »

aerioux wrote: post #98
QuinnWilton wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a refurbished Herman Miller Aeron today on Craig's List for $350, with same day delivery. It might just be a Bay Area thing, but Craig's List was crawling with them. I'm guessing it's all the failing businesses liquidating their stock. I used it all day and I'm amazed I spent years in an $80 Amazon chair.

oo if i may ask -- where?

I just typed "Aeron" into Craig's List and chose a seller. I think they delivered out of San Mateo. The going rate seemed to be $300 - $400 depending on whether you needed delivery or not.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#148

Post by cpr »

wyclif wrote: post #146
fyp wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly don't recommend buying from them. I bought a steelcase leap v2 in platinum color and it's clear that the base of the chair is a cheap knockoff. Crappy silver spraypaint that flakes, the wheels barely work, the piston was broken on delivery (which they did replace for free). I've had problems with the chair being too low at max height and I am a short guy. I still don't know if it's their cheap base that's th…

Thanks for saying this. Before I read your comment, I thought they were selling opened box or used Steelcase chairs, but 100% authentic. There's nothing on the site that I could find that discloses that parts of the chairs are not authentic. If that's the case, it's super shady of them.

I've been dealing with them for years and never saw anything shady. Perhaps the GP got unlucky and was unwittingly sold chairs with replacement parts.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#149

Post by mtnGoat »

alkonaut wrote: post #76
mtnGoat wrote: post #54

As someone who has worked at home for many years, and has a nice home office setup. $1k is not nearly enough... you need monitors, a decent desk, a nice chair, office supplies, a printer/scanner, the list goes on and on.

I have done over 10 years and I use chair, monitor, desk, keyboard, mouse, coffee. That's it. Printer or scanner I have never needed. The total is probably $1k or just under. I'm assuming of course that the $1k is for the office itself not for any other tech - i.e. that the employees have a laptop. I have the Ikea hand-cranked version of a stand up desk, and a normal Ikea office chair. Those are by far the biggest ex…

Yes, I agree on the last part. Thats why my OP stated a "nice setup". I think people should be comfortable when they work. Otherwise they will find reasons to not work, specially when un(der)supervised. Thus I think people should have higher quality monitors, decent chairs, adjustable height desks etc. I work fully remote, so a printer/scanner is a must, as i have no office to go to. I just look around my office and see lots of expenses... keyboard + mouse was $200.

Re: Shopify is giving its employees $1k to furnish their work-from-home setups

#150

Post by mtnGoat »

philliphaydon wrote: post #62
mtnGoat wrote: post #54

As someone who has worked at home for many years, and has a nice home office setup. $1k is not nearly enough... you need monitors, a decent desk, a nice chair, office supplies, a printer/scanner, the list goes on and on.

I think you will find that most of the people this $1k is targeting is people who already have the means to work from home, but maybe need some additional things. No mic/webcam for meetings. Maybe own a laptop but don't have a desk/chair. The 1k isn't about funding a fancy setup to permanently work from home. It's about filling the gaps so that they can work from home as effectively as possible during this time.

Comfortable employees are more productive employees. Here in Washington, this time will be at least 6 weeks(schools closed for 6 weeks). Thats a long time to sit hunched in an uncomfortable position. Id rather spend the extra cash on a nice chair/desk/monitor setup that will last a decade, then pinch pennies to save a few bucks now and then drop that dough at the chiropractor later.

But i guess the opinion of having a comfortable setup is unpopular here, since i got downvoted. lol.

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