Live data from Hacker News

InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

businessinsider.com

61–70 of 231 posts

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#61

I think remote works well when the company caters to remote employees as a main priority (maybe through adoption of remote friendly processes). I've worked in teams where i was the only remote employee and everyone else was in the office, suffice to say that i missed out on a lot of important information.

If one employee is remote, the entire company must act as if all employees are remote. Otherwise, this will happen. It's happened to me as well.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#62
post #47

I moved from the software sales industry to waiting tables in a rural area. I have a 10 minute commute by car or moped, I breathe fresh air, and I make enough money to support myself. My colleagues are my friends and my boss has never once slighted me on anything. There is something to be said about the perks of working remotely, but for once it is nice to work in a supportive, engaging environment that is close to m…

I work in the software industry, have a 10 minute commute, breathe fresh air, make enough money to support myself, my colleagues are my friends, and my boss has never once slighted me. A shit job is a shit job, but you don't have to leave software to find a job that isn't shit.

I totally agree with this, but where do you live where this exists?

I think there are more 35k a year jobs waiting tables in a beach town than there are 150k a year programming jobs in Santa Monica?

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone is different but having actually worked for this company is the reason I won't ever work remotely ever again.

How come?

High turnover, low loyalty, low pay. There's plenty of guys and gals there that are great there and not everyone was treated badly but I don't think it is the majority.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#64
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you so much for your questions. My high year in sales was 110k W2, 70k post tax, and 35k post expenses like food rent and car. My low year was 45k, aka just plain old base salary, and after taxes and expenses I broke even. I was living in a pretty expensive part of Boston. I'm sure I could have found a really nasty bedroom for like $650 if I wanted to haha. Right now as a waiter I'm making about $600 a week pre…

Just to run the numbers for everyone, this is $31,200 assuming no vacation all year. So making less money gross as a waiter than you're able to put into a savings account (after taxes and all expenses) as a software developer. I don't think that will be surprising information for anyone here. I've waited tables before and I'd rather be a software developer for half the median software developer salary than a waiter f…

Life is what you make of it. If he feels happy doing job X at 31200, then so be it. No need to look down on it. In fact be happy for him, there's already too much suffering in the world, so someone finding something they enjoy is a blessing.

Also he was in software SALES not dev, so not an accurate comparison.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#65

I think remote works well when the company caters to remote employees as a main priority (maybe through adoption of remote friendly processes). I've worked in teams where i was the only remote employee and everyone else was in the office, suffice to say that i missed out on a lot of important information.

I'm in that situation now. Well kind of. I am in the only team member not colocated with the rest of the team. At the start it was really hard. They would all be in a room together and I could barely even hear them over the phone, much less speak up and say something over their rapid fire conversations. It's gotten better since I've brought these concerns up I'm only on week 4. We've setup twice a week cisco telepres…

I've done this for a few years, flying in about once a month.

It's feasible and I would do it again, but the problems you are facing now won't really change much, you'll always be a bit out of the loop (e.g. you will miss that common joke that came out at lunch). I've also been on the other side and noticed the same issue.

How much this impacts you, is a very personal thing.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#66
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> start drawing on boards and paper Sounds like important brainstorming activities. How do you deal with this when you're remote?

Plenty of real-time whiteboarding tools. Something simple like a shared google doc works well for 90% of it.

Which collaborative whiteboard solutions do you like?

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#67
700 employees? That sounds like an awful lot for a product like InVision.

Bohemian Coding, the company behind Sketch, employs a few dozen people.

Also, I don't think the web is ready for UI/UX design tools. The ones I've tried feel really slow on my 5K iMac. Maybe in 5-10 years when web assembly is polished and related tool chains...

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#68

I think remote works well when the company caters to remote employees as a main priority (maybe through adoption of remote friendly processes). I've worked in teams where i was the only remote employee and everyone else was in the office, suffice to say that i missed out on a lot of important information.

I'm in that situation now. Well kind of. I am in the only team member not colocated with the rest of the team. At the start it was really hard. They would all be in a room together and I could barely even hear them over the phone, much less speak up and say something over their rapid fire conversations. It's gotten better since I've brought these concerns up I'm only on week 4. We've setup twice a week cisco telepres…

At a lot of companies, teleconferencing systems are astonishingly bad. Like, “why did they even consider buying this” bad. Often the first 10 minutes of a meeting will be spent figuring out how to use the conf system or rebooting it because it’s not working. Then figuring out which cable to plug into in order to project remotely. Then asking if everyone is here. Then telling Karen to mute her microphone because she’s apparently in a hurricane. Then Roger is 30 minutes late because he had the wrong dial-in code...

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#70
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to run the numbers for everyone, this is $31,200 assuming no vacation all year. So making less money gross as a waiter than you're able to put into a savings account (after taxes and all expenses) as a software developer. I don't think that will be surprising information for anyone here. I've waited tables before and I'd rather be a software developer for half the median software developer salary than a waiter f…

Life is what you make of it. If he feels happy doing job X at 31200, then so be it. No need to look down on it. In fact be happy for him, there's already too much suffering in the world, so someone finding something they enjoy is a blessing. Also he was in software SALES not dev, so not an accurate comparison.

I agree with your advice (no need to look down, etc). OP however came off as condescending (at least to me) when he said stuff like "breathe fresh air", "stuck in subway for 2 hours", etc in responses, making everything a zero sum game.

The way I see it, he moved to wherever because his girlfriend forced him to, and then lucked into find a good job that they enjoy.

Post reply on HN