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Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

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Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#721

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get that this story may be apocryphal, but if so it is surely widely disseminated by now. I even wondered about factuality as I wrote my comment, yet I knew of no evidence to the contrary. You didn't provide any substantial counterpoint. So what was the point you were making?

>I get that this story may be apocryphal, but if so it is surely widely disseminated by now. I even wondered about factuality as I wrote my comment, yet I knew of no evidence to the contrary. You'd be hard pressed to provide a search pattern in any search engine that would provide a top 5 result that isn't about Ford wage raises in 1914 being about anything else than worker retention. > You didn't provide any substan…

Both reasons are in fact correct, but only one person here is accusing the other of being wrong and spreading lies. Please be more circumspect in your language.

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/01/ford-doubles-min...

Higher wages were necessary, Ford realized, to retain workers who could handle the pressure and the monotony of his assembly line. In January of 1914, his continuous-motion system reduced the time to build a car from 12 and a half hours to 93 minutes. But the pace and repetitiveness of the jobs was so demanding, many workers found themselves unable to withstand it for eight hours a day, no matter how much they were paid.

But Ford had an even bigger reason for raising his wages, which he noted in a 1926 book, Today and Tomorrow. It’s as a challenging a statement today as it as 100 years ago. “The owner, the employees, and the buying public are all one and the same, and unless an industry can so manage itself as to keep wages high and prices low it destroys itself, for otherwise it limits the number of its customers. One’s own employees ought to be one’s own best customers.”

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#722
> Before you move, make sure to talk to your manager about performance and time zone expectations, as well as your availability for team gatherings.

Work from anywhere but ask your manager from where you can work. Also I want you here each three months for a one-week gathering, and if you're senior I want you to gather even more often. "The most flexible policy in the world" people are calling it LOL It's great a company like Airbnb does this, but come on!

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#723
post #61

Have laws caught up for this new way to work yet? Last ai checked there are non-insignificant legal and tax issues for small businesses to have employees in other states.

There are companies like TriNet that hire your workers directly on W2 and administer all the payroll and benefits for you. You then just pay TriNet directly instead of doing payroll yourself.

Insperity is one such company--my clients typically have employees in multiple states and we just handle all the details for them. https://www.insperity.com/bpa/zac.mutrux

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#724
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Just today in the office there was a coworker who was unfamiliar with a particular internal tool. He asked me, I walked to his desk, and pointed out the couple of buttons he needed to click in that internal tool. The whole exchange finished in one minute. After that minute I went back to coding. I stayed in my flow. But if this request for help arrived via group chat, I wouldn't have bothered to help. It was…

Sounds like something that could be solved by better documentation. I work for a fully remote company, and better documentation is definitely something I've noticed here compared to on-site roles.

Better docs and better tools. I jump on calls with little notice all the time. Zoom has a personal link you can use.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#725
post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well traveling within the EU should be simple enough. Haven't done it outside but I have a few questions. If I'm on paid leave, I'm still earning money, and I go to Asia - am I breaking the law? I'm still "doing" the activity that's earning me money. If I'm on my paid leave, and fiddle with my blog, which gets ad revenue - am I earning money and thus doing illegal economic activity? Not a lawyer so would love a more…

to test your theory, i invite you to present this exact scenario to border officials anywhere in the world. This is not meant as a snarky comment but a very literal statement. If you are turned around and refused entry, what you plan to do is illegal. As already mentioned, “Asia” is not a legal or political entity.

I actually did - a bunch of times back when UK was part of EU, and I didn’t have a EU passport myself.

Traveling to UK, permanent resident of Bulgaria (EU), Russian passport.

Border guard - “What are you doing in UK?”. Me - “Working on the clients premises and in their offices.” - “Sure come on in.”

All on tourist visas. Now I have BG citizenship there are no questions, but I wouldn’t think the sentiment is much different. As long as I’m not _employed_ by a company from the country I’m visiting, and stay a month or two, its fine, at least in the Europe. (I’m a contractor employed by BG company with clients in UK)

by “Asia” I meant no disrespect but I know little about the legal state of things there so seemed prudent to generalize

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how do you want to pay for roads?

Tolls. Privatize the roads.

It’s funny how anti government people tend to like socialised roads, police and military, but the socialised education and housing.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#727
post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but they're driving their own property values down. Property values don't matter when I get a return of 2-4x my mortage by using AirBnB. The income you are able to generate through AirBnB is very enticing.

So is the income you can generate by letting an oil company come frack on your ranch, but it's still pretty shortsighted.

My neighbors don't care so how is that comparison applicable?

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tolls. Privatize the roads.

It’s funny how anti government people tend to like socialised roads, police and military, but the socialised education and housing.

Really depends on the person. I'm for privatizing all those things. No public spending on education, housing, roads, police, or military. Minarchists tend to prefer some services while anarchists may not want any government at all, thus no government expenditures.

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#729
post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't just legally avoid taxes by not letting your employer know. Sure, they prob won't know and you'll get away with it, but you're technically breaking the law and an employer won't knowingly condone that. So it's not that they have a right to know where you are, it's that if they do notice and not act on it that's a legal risk to them as well since they're enabling it. (IANAL but this feels common sense.)

I wasn't saying avoid taxes -- mostly just that the "90 day" thing is nonsense, because if you're a remote employee, you're effectively just a really intelligent amoeba on the face of the Earth without a well-defined location. Pay your taxes, but if you say 153 days in Thailand or wherever you can get a long enough tourist visa, and use a VPN to the US and get your work done , I'm not sure why anyone would, should, o…

Why do you think you have the right to just settle in other people's countries and ignore their laws (on taxes and other things)?

Re: Airbnb’s design to live and work anywhere

#730
post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If its the latter then that seems like it might be a non-starter for people with families. If you can't make the time to spend a few days a quarter with your workmates in exchange for the most generous and fair remote working package then perhaps you're not a good fit for Airbnb. Which is totally fair. But they're not exactly taking the piss here. For many (many) people a week long retreat is a perk not a burden.

Haha - I hear you - its a treat if you are single or a DINK (dual income no kids) and need some solo social time. Especially if Monday and Friday are travel days. But if you have a family you actually like/love - then a full week away really is a non-starter. Especially if its Sunday night and Saturday morning travel. School plays and parent teacher conferences don't get planned based on the AirBNB week long retreat…

Surely the trade off of spending 50 weeks a year with your kids (when they're home sick, school holidays, etc) you wouldn't be able to with a normal job is worth 2 weeks of not being at home a year?
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