Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#211

Post by nlbrown » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

Ididntdothis wrote: post #9

It would be good if more tech companies embraced this. I bet if they need tools for themselves we’ll see a lot of progress in remote collaboration tools. To make this work I wonder how executives will adapt. In my company the higher you go up the chain, the more they want face to face communication. I guess most top executives are people persons so not seeing things like body language or using body language takes awa…

A potential compromise I am hoping for would be an increased willingness of companies to open satellite or smaller offices in secondary or tertiary real estate markets.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#212

Post by sl1ck731 » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

2bitencryption wrote: post #114

It's odd how HN does not reflect the reality I see. I'm at a big (Google/Microsoft/Amazon) workplace and WFH has always been a last-resort thing. I can't even imagine my team moving toward this. Every day I do too many things in the office that are face-to-face. Drop by the architect to get an opinion about XYZ, drop by a PM to ask about their functional spec, drop by a coworker to ask about some comments they left o…

You do all of those things because you can not because you have to. When I worked in the office I would routinely do those things as well, but I knew I just wanted to get up, walk around, and shoot the shit with whoever else was bored of their 3 grey walls.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#213

Post by TacoToni » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

sylens wrote: post #146

Ididntdothis wrote: post #9

It would be good if more tech companies embraced this. I bet if they need tools for themselves we’ll see a lot of progress in remote collaboration tools. To make this work I wonder how executives will adapt. In my company the higher you go up the chain, the more they want face to face communication. I guess most top executives are people persons so not seeing things like body language or using body language takes awa…

I would love for more companies to embrace this just to open up the candidate pool for positions. There are so many positions at Microsoft, for example, that I would have loved to apply for, but they require you to be in Redmond, and I'm just not in a position to relocate.

Completely agree - I've tried and failed many times to move from Orlando to Bay area. FAANG (finance work) wasnt willing to pay to relocate so they always went with local candidates over me. There are little to no interesting companies in my area. I want to work and help build the future. I was willing to take a paycut from MCOL to HCOL area for jobs and willing to go down in seniority for a chance to work at a big company in the Bay area. It would be nice if they finally start opening the applicant pool to those in other cities.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#214

Post by tobib » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

itsmefaz wrote: post #176

This is a really bad idea.. Firstly, home is not an effective place of work. I come home mostly to be with my family and not take my problems from work to home.. Aren't there many studies done on the same, why work shouldn't be brought to home and stuff.. Secondly, if the employer provides all the required setup (monitors, webcams, speakers) and support for electricity backups and stuff then I might be willing. The p…

Lots of generalization in here. I find that #1 and #3 are often under people's control. With the right setup, dedicated room, dedicated hours and time keeping it's easy to not let those happen.

What you mention in your second argument is interesting, I always forget about that one. In most of Europe and most of North-America I would assume this not to be an issue.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#215

Post by lhorie » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

throwaway713 wrote: post #182

dddbbb wrote: post #137

I work at a large tech company on a young team (average age is late twenties). In my experience many don't view working from home regularly as a benefit. I understand that must change drastically when you're middle aged, have a family to live around and a spacious house in the suburbs. But most younger people want to live in the middle of the city (i.e. small, often shared apartments but a short commute) and have no…

If I could keep my current compensation and move to the low cost of living area where my family is located, I would reach financial independence 10-15 years ahead of my current trajectory with Bay Area rents/costs. I'll settle for the minor inconveniences of WFH any day in order to get a decade of my life to spend with family or to work on my own projects.

My understanding is that this has big tax implications (since presumably said low cost of living areas are outside of California). I would love to understand better what sorts of complications WFH bring to the table for those cases (and how they can be mitigated).

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#216

Post by whynaut » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

AlexITC wrote: post #89

albertkoz wrote: post #60

The thing I miss the most while WFH is the whiteboard conversations. It's nice to be able to drag your colleagues for quick tech discussion and go back to work. Pen is much faster than drawing diagrams online.

Shameless plug, I'm pretty bad at drawing on the computer, which is one of the reasons I launched https://collabuml.com/

friendly suggestion, when sharing the URL it's helpful for the reader if you stylize it like the site does (collabUML). Otherwise it's hard not to see a misspelling of "collab album".

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#217

Post by freepor » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

Ididntdothis wrote: post #160

dddbbb wrote: post #137

I work at a large tech company on a young team (average age is late twenties). In my experience many don't view working from home regularly as a benefit. I understand that must change drastically when you're middle aged, have a family to live around and a spacious house in the suburbs. But most younger people want to live in the middle of the city (i.e. small, often shared apartments but a short commute) and have no…

This makes sense. In my team it’s the same: the young guys like going out together after work and also often don’t have the space at home to set up a good workplace. They also need the most handholding. I remember some discussions a while ago where the conclusion was that it’s hard to onboard juniors remotely and remote is more suitable for experienced people.

If the seniors are remote who will onboard the juniors in person?

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#218

Post by MarcellusDrum » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

0xEFF wrote: post #132

cynicalreason wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is exactly the reason I prefer the office .. I have 2 kids, 5 & 2, and if I'm home they are very much used to me being around them or doing something together, working from home is not ideal

A door helps tremendously.

If you think a door would stop 2 kids aged 2-5, I don't think you have lived in the same house with kids aged 2-5.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#219

Post by tick_tock_tick » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

VectorLock wrote: post #143

hinkley wrote: post #87

I want to know how to run a 24/7 company with senior employees spread around the world a few timezones apart. I just don't think we have the communication tools to support productive collaboration between people who hardly ever meet. (I think what I may be saying is that while yes, there are Open Source projects that overcome these same sorts of problems, I don't think it's tools or process that are the reason they w…

>I just don't think we have the communication tools to support productive collaboration between people who hardly ever meet. How do Open Source projects achieve it?

No real deadlines and mostly one or two developers max on any given improvement.

Re: Twitter Will Allow Employees to Work at Home Forever

#220

Post by amiga_500 » Tue, May 12, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

throwaway713 wrote: post #182

dddbbb wrote: post #137

I work at a large tech company on a young team (average age is late twenties). In my experience many don't view working from home regularly as a benefit. I understand that must change drastically when you're middle aged, have a family to live around and a spacious house in the suburbs. But most younger people want to live in the middle of the city (i.e. small, often shared apartments but a short commute) and have no…

If I could keep my current compensation and move to the low cost of living area where my family is located, I would reach financial independence 10-15 years ahead of my current trajectory with Bay Area rents/costs. I'll settle for the minor inconveniences of WFH any day in order to get a decade of my life to spend with family or to work on my own projects.

I would imagine salaries might dip because your new "competition" would be anyone in the same timezone (with the requisite skills). However I'd also imagine, if you are good, the offset would be well in your favour.

I got covid and was (and still am) as sick as hell. I'm going to live (not sure if I will get back to 100% yet), and I never thought this kind of sorely needed decentralization would happen in my lifetime. It almost feels like a fair swap, as this is going to be so, so good for humanity. If we can get a decent handle on covid, I'm actually feeling optimistic for my children, for the first time in years.