7 ms·

Why doesn’t your employees move out of Bay Area with you? Assuming if you keep offering same comp, this would cut down mortgage expenses to half and even gain m

Why doesn’t your employees move out of Bay Area with you? Assuming if you keep offering same comp, this would cut down mortgage expenses to half and even gain much better housing in better school areas. It should be no brainer to move out if comp remains same. So you can come in to shop for talent, have them work remotely until they are ready. No need to open expensive offices in Bay Area.

titanomachy 8y ago
Not everyone is willing to move. If you're looking for very specialized engineers you might end up with only a single potential hire who is unwilling to uproot his/her family.
Johnny555 8y ago
I think part of the reason is the same reason companies stay in the Bay Area -- companies are in the Bay Area because they can find lots of good engineers in the area. Engineers like the area because they can find lots of good companies that want to hire them. No startup is guaranteed to survive, and if you move to Idaho with your company and it fails, it can be difficult to move back to the Bay Area.
baddox 8y ago
Why would the assumption be that most people would want to move away from their homes because their current employer wants to save money? Sure, many tech employees probably moved to the Bay Area primarily to find employment, but even if they don’t enjoy other aspects of the area, a place you live in for a while will become your home, and abandoning your home is not an easy or obvious decision to make.
- wolfgke 8y ago
  > Why would the assumption be that most people would want to move away from their homes because their current employer wants to save money? If the company were willing to give their share of the saved money to the employee, the situation might be different.
- pascalxus 8y ago
  Most of us bay area folks fantasize about leaving this place. But, it's hard to get out of here. all our friends and family are here, not to mention our jobs. if it wasn't for that, I'd bet people would be leaving in droves.
- myspy 8y ago
  Yey, living in SF where junkies shoot on the street and everything is littered with excrements because fuck you good social security system. Let‘s live there! Plus, everything really expensive to live there. And if I work at Google I drive two hours with a bus there. I don‘t know but reading about that place it‘s insanity. And the output is Hit and miss. I know of no startup in the last ten years that‘s any substantial or enhancing live tremendously.
  - m0llusk 8y ago
    The Bay Area functions as a connected region with many areas that are not as troubled as SF.
  - chrischen 8y ago
    The reason why the homeless and junkies are in SF are because of the wealth, and the good support and benefits that exist for homeless people here. There's no borders in SF, so the nation's homeless will flock here because the police don't harass them as much, and they can get a lot of easy money from tourists/petty crime on the local rich people. So the homeless problem isn't an SF problem as it is is an American problem, and SF's one of the few places that doesn't kick them out again.
  - nindalf 8y ago
    If you’ve lived in any place long enough, most of your friends and support network do as well. Think about that.
    - shambolicfroli 8y ago
      How could a company facilitate a mass move, I wonder. Putting "anchor friends" in the new place.
  - dmode 8y ago
    Only a small portion of SF is matches the dystopian vision you claim. Even those portions are not any worse than other urban areas. There is a reason why housing here is extremely expensive. People want to live here.
welder 8y ago
This already happens all the time when starting remote offices, but not when moving the HQ. Employees who aren't attached to SF life or open to change of environment are willing to make the move. The pay vs cost of living usually works in their favor too. Smaller startups usually hire remote or start second HQs to tap into and train cheaper engineers outside SF. However, the post you're replying to was talking about larger startups moving INTO the bay area not out.
ramraj07 8y ago
So you're gonna trust your company will not lay you off in a year? What will you do after two years even if it didn't,? I doubt you'll continue to keep finding similar paying jobs in Dallas.
- humanrebar 8y ago
  > I doubt you'll continue to keep finding similar paying jobs in Dallas. You are replying to a post about how employers should stop paying such a premium for a SF ZIP code with the observation that the premium exists.
  - badfrog 8y ago
    I believe they were replying to the parent comment which said: > Assuming if you keep offering same comp
mikeash 8y ago
All the same reasons people don’t want to move everywhere else: family, friends, jobs (held by the spouse, for example), local culture, owning property, and just the general hassle of moving (it’s way easier to move jobs than to move houses). Move the company somewhere cheap and continue paying the same salary so your employees can live like kings there, and I’d wager you’ll still lose the majority of them.
- wtvanhest 8y ago
  McKesson did it. I have no idea how it worked out though.

titanomachy 8y ago

Not everyone is willing to move. If you're looking for very specialized engineers you might end up with only a single potential hire who is unwilling to uproot his/her family.

Johnny555 8y ago

I think part of the reason is the same reason companies stay in the Bay Area -- companies are in the Bay Area because they can find lots of good engineers in the area. Engineers like the area because they can find lots of good companies that want to hire them. No startup is guaranteed to survive, and if you move to Idaho with your company and it fails, it can be difficult to move back to the Bay Area.

baddox 8y ago

Why would the assumption be that most people would want to move away from their homes because their current employer wants to save money? Sure, many tech employees probably moved to the Bay Area primarily to find employment, but even if they don’t enjoy other aspects of the area, a place you live in for a while will become your home, and abandoning your home is not an easy or obvious decision to make.

wolfgke 8y ago
> Why would the assumption be that most people would want to move away from their homes because their current employer wants to save money? If the company were willing to give their share of the saved money to the employee, the situation might be different.
pascalxus 8y ago
Most of us bay area folks fantasize about leaving this place. But, it's hard to get out of here. all our friends and family are here, not to mention our jobs. if it wasn't for that, I'd bet people would be leaving in droves.
myspy 8y ago
Yey, living in SF where junkies shoot on the street and everything is littered with excrements because fuck you good social security system. Let‘s live there! Plus, everything really expensive to live there. And if I work at Google I drive two hours with a bus there. I don‘t know but reading about that place it‘s insanity. And the output is Hit and miss. I know of no startup in the last ten years that‘s any substantial or enhancing live tremendously.
- m0llusk 8y ago
  The Bay Area functions as a connected region with many areas that are not as troubled as SF.
- chrischen 8y ago
  The reason why the homeless and junkies are in SF are because of the wealth, and the good support and benefits that exist for homeless people here. There's no borders in SF, so the nation's homeless will flock here because the police don't harass them as much, and they can get a lot of easy money from tourists/petty crime on the local rich people. So the homeless problem isn't an SF problem as it is is an American problem, and SF's one of the few places that doesn't kick them out again.
- nindalf 8y ago
  If you’ve lived in any place long enough, most of your friends and support network do as well. Think about that.
  - shambolicfroli 8y ago
    How could a company facilitate a mass move, I wonder. Putting "anchor friends" in the new place.
- dmode 8y ago
  Only a small portion of SF is matches the dystopian vision you claim. Even those portions are not any worse than other urban areas. There is a reason why housing here is extremely expensive. People want to live here.

welder 8y ago

This already happens all the time when starting remote offices, but not when moving the HQ. Employees who aren't attached to SF life or open to change of environment are willing to make the move. The pay vs cost of living usually works in their favor too. Smaller startups usually hire remote or start second HQs to tap into and train cheaper engineers outside SF. However, the post you're replying to was talking about larger startups moving INTO the bay area not out.

ramraj07 8y ago

So you're gonna trust your company will not lay you off in a year? What will you do after two years even if it didn't,? I doubt you'll continue to keep finding similar paying jobs in Dallas.

humanrebar 8y ago
> I doubt you'll continue to keep finding similar paying jobs in Dallas. You are replying to a post about how employers should stop paying such a premium for a SF ZIP code with the observation that the premium exists.
- badfrog 8y ago
  I believe they were replying to the parent comment which said: > Assuming if you keep offering same comp

mikeash 8y ago

All the same reasons people don’t want to move everywhere else: family, friends, jobs (held by the spouse, for example), local culture, owning property, and just the general hassle of moving (it’s way easier to move jobs than to move houses). Move the company somewhere cheap and continue paying the same salary so your employees can live like kings there, and I’d wager you’ll still lose the majority of them.

wtvanhest 8y ago
McKesson did it. I have no idea how it worked out though.