Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

remoteclan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 64 posts

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#51

Post by lotsofpulp »

runevault wrote: post #17
amitport wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point was that some employers may pay you more than enough for you to pay for your own health insurance (even after tax deductions). (I'm not in the US, you seem to have your own hell there, but still, every 'benefit' has a price tag, no?)

Companies of any real size tend to get better rates than most individuals can get because they can average things out over a larger group of people, since odds are a decent % of the people won't need to spend a significant amount on health care any given year. So while there is some cost to the employee it is still probably doing better than if they simply put that money directly in your pocket. But yes US healthcare…

In my experience, healthcare.gov pricing for health insurance and the premiums paid by employers are all roughly the same for comparable level plans (by metal level).

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#52

Post by lotsofpulp »

dudul wrote: post #26
disabled wrote: post #2

I also would not be surprised if more American jobs are now hiring people on as contractors only, without the benefits.

This could actually be an interesting path to get out of the "employer sponsored health care" mess that we have now. Pay people a bit more and create a bigger incentive for carriers to offer interesting plans to individuals.

All legislators have to do is not offer a tax break for employer subsidized benefits. However, this will be lobbied against by the large employers because they maintain a competitive advantage over small employers since they can afford to do all the paperwork that goes into offering the benefits.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#53

Post by morpheos137 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #20
frankbreetz wrote: post #6

most of the stuff I've seen is "temporarily remote" until COVID is over, so there is still an expectation that you will eventually come in. Who knows if that will ever happen, but it is quite a different situation between the two.

I’ve been coaching folks on jumping to new jobs for the last several months (helping others level up is my jam). In all cases, when I’ve told them to have the employer put the remote terms in their offer letter (if it’s not in writing it doesn’t exist), it has been done. Most of the time it’s painless, the few times the candidates have been told no I suggested they walk and the company capitulated in under 12 hours a…

Almost all employment in the USA is "at will." So an offer letter is not an employment contract. So if conditions change and employer could require you to come in to work even if the offer was remote only and let you go if you refuse.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#54

Post by baylessj »

DoctorDabadedoo wrote: post #18
MattGaiser wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m seeing is a lot for software development job postings in Canada. It is “remote” but you are required to live in the city.

I've seen a lot of bait and switch from recruiters on this recently. Job listing: Remote possible First/Second interview: We would actually prefer this position to be on site.

I had the same experience interviewing this last month. A lot of companies that are remote during COVID that will pretend to be fully remote until an interview or two into the process.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#55

Post by toomuchtodo »

morpheos137 wrote: post #53
toomuchtodo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been coaching folks on jumping to new jobs for the last several months (helping others level up is my jam). In all cases, when I’ve told them to have the employer put the remote terms in their offer letter (if it’s not in writing it doesn’t exist), it has been done. Most of the time it’s painless, the few times the candidates have been told no I suggested they walk and the company capitulated in under 12 hours a…

Almost all employment in the USA is "at will." So an offer letter is not an employment contract. So if conditions change and employer could require you to come in to work even if the offer was remote only and let you go if you refuse.

In such a situation, you would engage a labor law attorney to discuss promissory estoppel and have them prepare and send a settlement offer to not take the employer to court. That is why the offer letter paper trail is important.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#56

Post by avgDev »

mjbellantoni wrote: post #30
frankbreetz wrote: post #6

most of the stuff I've seen is "temporarily remote" until COVID is over, so there is still an expectation that you will eventually come in. Who knows if that will ever happen, but it is quite a different situation between the two.

Remote is definitely a spectrum. On one end there's "you can be anywhere on the planet" to "you can work from home but we expect you to live in this city or state." Employers know that remote is appealing to devs, so they're eager to claim they're remote employers. As folks elsewhere have said, read the fine print and get commitments in writing if needed.

So, I'm awaiting an offer for a remote position. However, the documents they produce are generic and include that you may need to travel. It is a huge firm that does consulting also, however, it states I will be working in a internal team on a product.

I'm not sure it really matters. As I can always walk if they require me to come in to the office, but the company has been mostly remote for years and the team is all over the country.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#57

Post by avgDev »

armchairhacker wrote: post #31

Personally i think “hybrid” jobs where there is more to be done remotely is probably for the best. Some people function best in-person, some function best remotely, so there is the most productivity and worker comfort. A big issue i see is networking and social life. But those aren’t always good with in-person jobs either, your coworkers could be different than the people you like hanging out with. I think instead we…

In order to do remote correctly the company needs to be setup for remote work, no half measures. Standups/meetings happen online only. Employees are active on slack/teams, and not only devs but everyone.

The biggest issue is people who are resistant to change and are unwilling to learn new ways of communications. Some companies were forced to go remote but never did remote correctly. Some people just work at home and produce work but the team work/communication isn't there. This may make people feel like "hey, office was better", but as someone who has been apart of many online communities, you can form relationships online and collaborate to get things done. This wont happen with people who refuse to change.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#58

Post by neogodless »

slumdev wrote: post #47
neogodless wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been about 2.5 years. Was paying under $700 for the two of us. The difference in pay between W2 and 1099 was $30,000 / year. This more than covered all taxes and health insurance costs. (And even the W2 rate was much higher than typical full-time salaries.) The main difference in taxes is the 15.3% you pay towards FICA, where an employer has to cover most of it for W-2 (you still pay 6.2%.) I don't remember all…

> Was paying under $700 for the two of us. What did this buy, though? That premium sounds like either a "health sharing ministry" or some kind of barebones catastrophic plan. Both are smart options if a person has good income and a financial cushion, but they're a much lesser coverage than what most big employers would provide. > if 1099 is ~25% more than W-2, odds are pretty good you can do better on your own I've u…

As I said, it was a good plan. I don't remember exact numbers, but low deductible (maybe $2000), low co-pays, lots of things covered such as (some) fertility, mental health, etc. We were 39/34 at the time.

It was not a health share ministry or barebones catastrophic. It was something like Blue Cross Silver, though I don't remember the exact name (and the name would reveal more about my location than I probably should share.)

My comparison was to a plan with a previous employer that cost me $400/month (my portion) and was worse. So paying "$300 more" for a better plan also took a lot of the sting out of it.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#59

Post by mgkimsal »

seoaeu wrote: post #9
mgkimsal wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get more $ in return... I don't see much downside. People will have to learn to run themselves as a business/contractor, and have a bit more discipline re: taxes. Getting a check for $3000 doesn't mean you can spend all $3000 immediately, etc. If we move in this direction more, we'll potentially chip away at some of the "employer=healthinsurance" mindset that has trapped so many people in less than optimal job…

That's a big if. For jobs like being an Uber driver, the consensus seems to be that you get less money.

Sure, but that's ... it seems to me many taxi folks were already 'independent' in some way beforehand (perhaps not all?).

The payment model for that seems somewhat opaque anyway - you've got mileage/depreciation on a vehicle, fuel, no hourly base pay to start with (IIRC).

For companies that employed an accountant onsite for, say, $70k/year, if they want to pay that accountant direct, say, $90k directly... fine.

Re: More than 75% of Job Posts are Remote

#60

Post by karmakaze »

mirekrusin wrote: post #29

so "Not a remote work offer!!!" will be counted as remote?

Or

  [x] onsite
  [ ] remote
This is reminding me of that bizarre time on a project migrating network device management data/contracts from Excel sheets to SAP. There was a template. It was copied and used, and modified. So creativity enters and nothing is where it should be, and people start to represent information with things other than textual content, like position/indenting, or the worst: cell highlight colours.
Post reply on HN