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

businessinsider.com

71–80 of 153 posts

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

#71
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The article says that the $1k is for all 5000 of their employees. I doubt all of them have a laptop that they take home and most laptops already include a decent microphone and camera. The budget definitely does not target buying a laptop or desktop computer. It has to be for accessories like a chair, desk, scanner+printer.

Alot of people already have a laptop, or computer at home.

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

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer on the blunt end of their theme development I have questions. That said, they solve some difficult problems and no one else comes close at the moment.

Care to elaborate what those problems are?

Well for one thing they seem to have have quite a comprehensive tax system which they keep updated. Something I realised could be valuable when dealing with a Californian client on a different Ecom platform.

Another one is a reasonably powerful but client friendly interface, which sounds easy but almost all other platforms fail in some way.

Lastly it isn't totally bad for headless ecommerce, at least if you dont look at the accounts system too hard.

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

#73

You can buy a Herman Miller refurb on Amazon for $500. It's a great deal. You also need a second monitor, mechanical keyboard, webcam, headset. $1k is plenty for all of that

Not at all the most important thing, but mechanical keyboards are going to be sold out so fast. There are tons of people who want them, but just don’t want to bug people in their office. WFH will change that. And it’s mostly small suppliers who won’t scale that fast. I imagine they use some Chinese parts, too.

Depends on if you have a partner and kids. I’ve had to retire my mechanical keyboard at home for just this reason.

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

#74
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed that BI's articles are full of typos. Not sure if they just rush things out or what, but some of them are so obvious if anyone did a round of proof reading they would've spotted it.

Does anyone actually go to BI, Forbes, TechCrunch, whatever, directly anymore? The most they get is a headline in someone’s social media feed that generates a click and maybe 10 seconds of eyeball on ad. Proof reading isn’t worth it.

Businessweek is still doing good work.

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

#75
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cherry MX browns might be an option, they are supposed to be quiet.

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.

I started the mechanical revolution in our ~30p open plan office, now a dozen or so of us use them. I'm using MX Clears, others are using Browns, there's even a red in there, the noise isn't really an issue, just don't hammer the life out if it.

Also higher quality boards with nice heavy plates lower the pitch of the sound so it's less intrusive (in my experience).

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

#76
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 expenses but I think they were under $500 together. A good screen is $250-$600 (I got a g-sync one because this is also my gaming space and my gaming rig feeds the same monitor). Unpopular opinion: more than one big external screen is a waste.

My office supplies are a good pen and a stack of printer paper I grab from the office when I'm there. I have never seen the need for a printer or scanner or any other office supplies.

I'd say $1k isn't exactly luxurious, but if we agree that anyone can do fine with ikea furniture and one external monitor then it's just right.

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

#77
post #3

PSA: Used office chairs are a much better deal than new, at least if you are paying close to list price. About 10 years ago I bought a steelcase leap for less than $300. I've used it at least 250 days a year since then with no problems. List price on that chair is $1k.

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.

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

#78

I'm a remote worker and I've found it hard to say something positive about the virus, but having companies be more ok with remote workers and (hopefully) finding work still gets done can mean more remote possibilities overall. For me, that's a good thing.

It's also possible that (too many) people treat this thing as a temporary distraction, throw their hands up in the air, and don't even try to be seriously productive; blame the conditions for no work getting done. Kinda like "github is down and I'm compiling and there's a group of visitors in the office..."

So it might kinda backfire on that front.

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

#79

I have worked from home for nearly a decade. I guess I don’t know what I’m missing but I don’t need 1k chair. I sit at my dinning room table on a 50 dollar chair from Ashley Furniture. No problems at all. True I don’t have a desktop and use a laptop so I can take it with me to onsite meetings or move to another location like my patio, couch, or garage. I’m not sure what I’d spend 1k on besides the machine I use to ge…

For me a nice monitor is a must. I cannot be productive on a laptop for more than an hour or two. It all feels so constricting.

I do have a work laptop but I never use it because I hate working on the small thing(I don't like laptops that much in general). But when I work from home I use my home computer as it's really powerful(much more so than my work desktop also) and i have dual 25" monitors.

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

#80
post #3

PSA: Used office chairs are a much better deal than new, at least if you are paying close to list price. About 10 years ago I bought a steelcase leap for less than $300. I've used it at least 250 days a year since then with no problems. List price on that chair is $1k.

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.

From a previous life in financial services refit (remodelling) you are correct. I have disposed of lots of top quality desks, chairs and drawers - sometimes with random amounts of cash left in them!

Always returned, btw.

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