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A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#201

Post by jon_richards »

msthrow wrote: post #177
bsder wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At Amazon the signing bonus you owe if you leave within one year but the relocation bonus you owe if you leave within two; both are prorated Um, wow. Yet another reason not to work at Amazon. How does Amazon still get employees when they just seem to pile these kinds of irritating, anti-employee behaviors up one after another?

Are these bonus terms not standard? These prorated periods are the same for Microsoft. How else do you stop someone walking out on day 1 with 50k cash?

The alternative would be to have a "guaranteed" bonus after a certain amount of time, but people overwhelmingly prefer having something now, even if it means they might lose it later.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#202

Post by ringaroundthetx »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #147
ringaroundthetx wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on how that specific fraud and corruption would work? Many states and some entire countries simply don't fund themselves by stealing from people's paycheck, but usually passively tax other kinds of transactions. There are lots of opportunities using combinations of the 50 states, territories and non-US jurisdictions.

Tax isn't stealing, that is a rather silly argument.

I used inflammatory wording to get attention. But either way you should be able to perceive the relative morality of it whether "due process" is involved or not.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#203

Post by optimusclimb »

aphextron wrote: post #88
alexbanks wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the concentration of tech talent means that it's always easy to find a new job, or even to start your own company. I've never been there, but I see this echoed a lot. Is it actually true? I'm interested in both, but I'm wary of the exaggeration that may be "it's easy".

>but I'm wary of the exaggeration that may be "it's easy". It really is. It's why I cant bring myself to leave this place even with all it's warts. Knowing that you can just screw off and do whatever you want for a year then have a dozen interviews lined up for six figure jobs with nothing more than a few emails is really empowering, actually. I can't imagine the anxiety of living somewhere else and being dependent o…

> Knowing that you can just screw off and do whatever you want for a year then have a dozen interviews lined up for six figure jobs with nothing more than a few emails is really empowering, actually.

Unless you're a front end engineer. Then you'd be behind about 4 frameworks, 2 build systems, and 3 transpiled languages. Might as well be a fortran programmer at that point.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#204

Post by romwell »

eldavido wrote: post #79
tehlike wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason is probably super inflated salaries in bay area due to high cost of living. Lock in has probably less to do with this than pure money aspect.

I think there's a collective realization happening in the Bay Area that the landlords are the real winners and everyone else is just playing their game. Employees hate seeing 3k/month fly out the door in rent just as much as CEOs hate paying it, just as much as investors hate seeing their capital ultimately end up with landlords. Big companies in general are conservative. They've made it and don't want to take unnece…

> The situation will only get better once remote work

No, that's not the only way. The real way for the situation to get better is for the local governments to adopt high-density zoning regulations, which would lead to the following:

-residential high-rises -dense public transportation networks -multi-use buildings (stores/services on ground floors, residential above) -a real walking and cycling infrastructure that doesn't make you feel suicidal when you use it -walkable neighborhoods

Whatever the price of the land is, the 20-story apartment high-rise will fetch more in rent than the two-story complex on the same land, even if the rent is 5x lower.

Simultaneously, you will be inclined far less to drive (or own) your vehicle if you commute by train and pick up your groceries on the 5-minute walk from the subway top to you home. This helps consolidate more people on a smaller expanse of land, reduce traffic, etc.

I'm not talking about having a Tokyo by the Bay. Such policies aren't unrealistic even by the US standards. What I wrote above can be found in Brooklyn.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#205

Post by btian »

uiri wrote: post #179
btian wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More Pros - Drive to work in your Tesla - Free gourmet food at work - A lot of Whole Foods Market to shop at - Being rich AF

None of the points you list are at all unique to the Bay Area. The person you are replying to is highlighting the high cost of living and tax burden in the Bay Area (relative to other parts of the US). It is disingenuous to respond by claiming that a pro of living in the Bay Area is "Being rich AF".

If you can get the same salary in Montana then you should move there.

Are you disputing that wages are higher in Bay Area than rest of the country?

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#206

Post by [deleted] »

romwell wrote: post #204
eldavido wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a collective realization happening in the Bay Area that the landlords are the real winners and everyone else is just playing their game. Employees hate seeing 3k/month fly out the door in rent just as much as CEOs hate paying it, just as much as investors hate seeing their capital ultimately end up with landlords. Big companies in general are conservative. They've made it and don't want to take unnece…

> The situation will only get better once remote work No, that's not the only way. The real way for the situation to get better is for the local governments to adopt high-density zoning regulations, which would lead to the following: -residential high-rises -dense public transportation networks -multi-use buildings (stores/services on ground floors, residential above) -a real walking and cycling infrastructure that d…

[deleted]

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#207

Post by throw4625 »

chrissnell wrote: post #143

As someone who works remotely and who posts remote-friendly openings for his team in the Who's Hiring HN thread, it's kind of amazing to me that more people aren't actively looking to get out. I live and work in a small midwestern town because my wife's military job has us here. If I was single, however, I would make the most of my remoteness and try working from a variety of towns. Here's some places that I would tr…

I did this for five years in Panama. Weather was nice. Met my wife there. Learned Spanish. There's no income tax there if your money comes from out of the country. As long as you're not from the US, that's amazing. For Americans I think you still have to pay tax over 100,000 income. Remote salaries don't go much above that anyway though. Paid off my mortgage by 31. Not too bad for a college dropout.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#208

Post by bsder »

msthrow wrote: post #177
bsder wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At Amazon the signing bonus you owe if you leave within one year but the relocation bonus you owe if you leave within two; both are prorated Um, wow. Yet another reason not to work at Amazon. How does Amazon still get employees when they just seem to pile these kinds of irritating, anti-employee behaviors up one after another?

Are these bonus terms not standard? These prorated periods are the same for Microsoft. How else do you stop someone walking out on day 1 with 50k cash?

I'm surprised about the relocation for 2 years. I would have expected one year for anything. Two years is an eternity in tech.

> These prorated periods are the same for Microsoft.

Ah. Understood.

> How else do you stop someone walking out on day 1 with 50k cash?

If that happens enough that you have to actually worry about it, you have much bigger problems.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#209

Post by rak00n »

nostrademons wrote: post #117
svachalek wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commute a little: https://www.mytrove.com/ca/santa-clara-county/cheddar/softwa...

Or just work in the South Bay. All the really dominant Bay Area tech companies (Google, Facebook, Apple, Netflix - also Cisco, Intel, Juniper, NVidia, even Hewlett-Packard and IBM) are here.

Cons: Bad traffic, bad public transportation, boredom if you're single.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#210

Post by rak00n »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #115
sidlls wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot at least two pros: - Large salaries lead to higher savings rates - Opportunities are just not comparable almost anywhere less expensive: there are tens of thousands of jobs from hundreds of employers here in the Bay Area for technology that pays well, compared with hundreds or maybe a few thousand jobs for maybe a dozen or few tens of employers Also the "monoculture" dig applies to tech specifically: in te…

We had a dev working for the summer who got a job at an SF startup this past week. He's making $2k a week, but his rent for his apartment costs $3k and he's got roommates. As someone who has lived off of $40k and rented a $1.4k a month loft that was absolutely palatial, in the middle of the city with great views, this sounds like insanity. My coworker who is from the Boston area was similarly aghast at the difference…

You can get plenty of nice apartments in $3k range. I don't understand why he has to have roommates if that's not a personal preference.
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