7 ms·

..Remote (North America Only)..

by mahesh_rm 7y ago

pc 7y ago
For now!
- ingenieroariel 7y ago
  If you want to test out workers outside of USA but not have to solve the timezone related issues I recommend Colombia. There is at least one interested person there.
  - kypro 7y ago
    As someone who's worked remote with "timezone issues" before they're not for the company to solve. If you live in Europe but work for a US company that requires you to work US times, it's simple, you work US times. This is how I've worked before and it's worked out perfectly. In fact, I'm a bit of a night owl so I much preferred it.
    - jhgaylor 7y ago
      I work at a company where everyone is expected to be in the office. But we have early birds and night owls employed by the same company to work together. We don't have a formalized solution as night owls do as you described and get on up if they have work due in the morning. Or the early birds will stay up late to help the night owls finish. But a lot of companies take on "Core hours" and essentially solve the timezone problem even with a physical office. With core hours management is deciding that they don't want to solve the "timezone issues". I wonder how well the opposite end of the spectrum would work. Our async communication tools are pretty good these days. You could keep someone solving the problem all day long with just 3 or 4 hires but instead people choose to work on the problem in scheduled bursts of 6 hours with their entire team.
      - jypepin 7y ago
        if you are interested and want to solve this for your company, look into Gitlab. They are solving it and have very good public documentation on this.
        emilycook 7y ago
        GitLab employee here, yes we do! I honestly couldn't go back to a company without asynchronous communication. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/ https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/
      - brodock 7y ago
        Also GitLab employee here. I work for the Geo team (geographical replication and disaster recovery), and funny thing is we are also sparsely geographically distributed. No single person in the same country. We have people spread out with all impossible timezones combinations, from US west-coast, Brazil, Europe (east/west) going all the way to Australia.
    - peterjmag 7y ago
      I disagree — those issues are totally for the company to solve. Or at least, the company should be prepared to meet employees halfway. If a North American company is going to insist that I work North American hours whilst living in Europe, I'm just not going to work there. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. I live in Europe and work for a very remote-friendly, NY-based company, and I work pretty normal European hours. I have 2-3 hours of overlap with the various members of my team, and that's all I need. (In fact, I'm more productive in the morning here because it's easier for me to focus when our group chat is mostly quiet.) Of course, it's not as simple as saying that you can work from anywhere for anybody at any time, but I don't think it's fair to say that timezone issues are not for the company to solve.
      - lugg 7y ago
        > And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. Your not, what AP thinks is reasonable would be considered rediculous if you frame it under normal satellite office scenarios. Can you imagine Sydney Googlers all catching the late train into the city to work the night shift. Like come on. Re stripe limiting to NA only I get their concerns but its a failing approach. They're going to build out remote teams and a bunch of practices that rely on this timezone sync. Swapping out real-time communication to async communication is going to be much, much harder once those practices are ingrained. They also need to add more than just engineering into this remote hub. Having all your non engineers in offices is going to create a very odd adversarial culture.
    - jypepin 7y ago
      No, this is not how the timezone should be solved, and great if it works for you, but this is just not sane for most people. To solve the timezone issue, you put in place as much tools and processes as possible around working asynchronously instead of having meetings all days. This is why most remote setups work better in fully remote companies - they are more incentivised to put those things in place.
    - geofft 7y ago
      I think one of the fundamental things about remote work culture is default working async with occasional blocks of scheduled sync time, instead of default working sync with occasional affordance for async time (when you're at a meeting away from your desk etc.). You're working more the way an open-source project works, with higher-bandwidth higher-latency communication channels like email or code review tools instead of in-person conversations. If you have timezone issues at all (outside of your on-call rotation), that means you haven't figured out your remote story yet. Which is totally fine! I'd have trouble imagining how you figure it out without already doing it. So it makes sense that they're starting in a half-remote state and then intending to get really remote at some point.
organsnyder 7y ago
Not sure if this is true in Stripe's case, but in some cases contracts with clients (especially governments, financial firms, healthcare companies, and the like) have stipulations as to where work can be performed.
jimmaswell 7y ago
Probably simplifies everything legally.
- iagooar 7y ago
  I wonder because Stripe has a subsidiary in the EU already.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
NullPrefix 7y ago
Remote, Oregon.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
hyeomans 7y ago
Does that include Mexico? People in HR sometimes forgets that north america means Canada, US & Mexico
C4stor 7y ago
I'm having a hard time reconciling "They see how people purchase food differently in bodegas, konbini, and darshinis. They know why it is important to engineer robustness in the face of slow, unreliable internet connections. They have worked in and run businesses that don’t have access to global payments infrastructure." with this precision. What's the point of mentioning typical south american or asian shops names and then offer north america only remote jobs ?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- starshadowx2 7y ago
  "And though we intend to hire remote engineers in Europe and Asia eventually, our hubs in Dublin and Singapore are not sufficiently established to support remotes just yet."
  - C4stor 7y ago
    I read that, but the timezone problem doesn't really explain why south america was slashed. Overall it seems a bit strange to explain "we officially have a remote hub" and "remote workers need to be supported by physical hubs".
    - kevsim 7y ago
      "There is substantial organizational, legal, and financial infrastructure required to support each new jurisdiction we hire in, so we have to be measured in how quickly we expand." Each country you want to pay salary in comes with legal aspects. Therefore they have to be a bit tactical with where they try to hire people.
      - greenhatman 7y ago
        I work remotely for a U.S. based company from South Africa. I don't think they do anything special for each different territory. The IRS stuff just has two categories - U.S. and outside U.S. I'd love to apply for an engineering job at Stripe.
jon-wood 7y ago
They clearly state in the article that this is because they aren't currently set up as well to accommodate remote people across disparate time zones, but are looking to resolve that.
- Kaveren 7y ago
  South America, Mexico, and other North American countries exist in the same timezones as the US and Canada. Is it something to do with hiring regulations being too much of a pain to deal with in countries where Stripe doesn't feel like the best talent is? Additionally, why not just offer remote positions that require you to work US hours? I manage just fine as someone self-employed and remote working with people in the UK. This wouldn't need to be a permanent solution, but I don't see why exclusion is necessary here.
  - hyeomans 7y ago
    Mexico is part of North America, remember NAFTA? (North American Free Trade Agreement) It's as easy to hire Mexican remote employees as Canadians, see W8-BEN
    - raverbashing 7y ago
      W8-BEN has nothing to do with work autorization, rather with IRS reporting of accounts.
      - hyeomans 7y ago
        Exactly. Companies are afraid of wiring money to Mexican/Canadian accounts. (IANAL btw, but work remotely from Mexico)
  - freehunter 7y ago
    Moving to remote work is hard and filled with problems to begin with. Adding different national holidays, connectivity challenges, cultures, languages, etc on top of that adds to the complexity. If remote work failed, is it because remote work doesn't work, or is it because of employees in different countries, or is it because of cultural differences, or is it because of...? Starting with a limited trial seems a more risk-averse move. If remote work proves itself out, it can be expanded more easily than it can be retracted.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
willio58 7y ago
Is this bad? I think it’s totally understandable.

..Remote (North America Only)..

pc 7y ago

For now!

ingenieroariel 7y ago
If you want to test out workers outside of USA but not have to solve the timezone related issues I recommend Colombia. There is at least one interested person there.
- kypro 7y ago
  As someone who's worked remote with "timezone issues" before they're not for the company to solve. If you live in Europe but work for a US company that requires you to work US times, it's simple, you work US times. This is how I've worked before and it's worked out perfectly. In fact, I'm a bit of a night owl so I much preferred it.
  - jhgaylor 7y ago
    I work at a company where everyone is expected to be in the office. But we have early birds and night owls employed by the same company to work together. We don't have a formalized solution as night owls do as you described and get on up if they have work due in the morning. Or the early birds will stay up late to help the night owls finish. But a lot of companies take on "Core hours" and essentially solve the timezone problem even with a physical office. With core hours management is deciding that they don't want to solve the "timezone issues". I wonder how well the opposite end of the spectrum would work. Our async communication tools are pretty good these days. You could keep someone solving the problem all day long with just 3 or 4 hires but instead people choose to work on the problem in scheduled bursts of 6 hours with their entire team.
    - jypepin 7y ago
      if you are interested and want to solve this for your company, look into Gitlab. They are solving it and have very good public documentation on this.
      - emilycook 7y ago
        GitLab employee here, yes we do! I honestly couldn't go back to a company without asynchronous communication. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/ https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/
    - brodock 7y ago
      Also GitLab employee here. I work for the Geo team (geographical replication and disaster recovery), and funny thing is we are also sparsely geographically distributed. No single person in the same country. We have people spread out with all impossible timezones combinations, from US west-coast, Brazil, Europe (east/west) going all the way to Australia.
  - peterjmag 7y ago
    I disagree — those issues are totally for the company to solve. Or at least, the company should be prepared to meet employees halfway. If a North American company is going to insist that I work North American hours whilst living in Europe, I'm just not going to work there. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. I live in Europe and work for a very remote-friendly, NY-based company, and I work pretty normal European hours. I have 2-3 hours of overlap with the various members of my team, and that's all I need. (In fact, I'm more productive in the morning here because it's easier for me to focus when our group chat is mostly quiet.) Of course, it's not as simple as saying that you can work from anywhere for anybody at any time, but I don't think it's fair to say that timezone issues are not for the company to solve.
    - lugg 7y ago
      > And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. Your not, what AP thinks is reasonable would be considered rediculous if you frame it under normal satellite office scenarios. Can you imagine Sydney Googlers all catching the late train into the city to work the night shift. Like come on. Re stripe limiting to NA only I get their concerns but its a failing approach. They're going to build out remote teams and a bunch of practices that rely on this timezone sync. Swapping out real-time communication to async communication is going to be much, much harder once those practices are ingrained. They also need to add more than just engineering into this remote hub. Having all your non engineers in offices is going to create a very odd adversarial culture.
  - jypepin 7y ago
    No, this is not how the timezone should be solved, and great if it works for you, but this is just not sane for most people. To solve the timezone issue, you put in place as much tools and processes as possible around working asynchronously instead of having meetings all days. This is why most remote setups work better in fully remote companies - they are more incentivised to put those things in place.
  - geofft 7y ago
    I think one of the fundamental things about remote work culture is default working async with occasional blocks of scheduled sync time, instead of default working sync with occasional affordance for async time (when you're at a meeting away from your desk etc.). You're working more the way an open-source project works, with higher-bandwidth higher-latency communication channels like email or code review tools instead of in-person conversations. If you have timezone issues at all (outside of your on-call rotation), that means you haven't figured out your remote story yet. Which is totally fine! I'd have trouble imagining how you figure it out without already doing it. So it makes sense that they're starting in a half-remote state and then intending to get really remote at some point.

organsnyder 7y ago

Not sure if this is true in Stripe's case, but in some cases contracts with clients (especially governments, financial firms, healthcare companies, and the like) have stipulations as to where work can be performed.

jimmaswell 7y ago

Probably simplifies everything legally.

iagooar 7y ago
I wonder because Stripe has a subsidiary in the EU already.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

NullPrefix 7y ago

Remote, Oregon.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

hyeomans 7y ago

Does that include Mexico? People in HR sometimes forgets that north america means Canada, US & Mexico

C4stor 7y ago

I'm having a hard time reconciling "They see how people purchase food differently in bodegas, konbini, and darshinis. They know why it is important to engineer robustness in the face of slow, unreliable internet connections. They have worked in and run businesses that don’t have access to global payments infrastructure." with this precision. What's the point of mentioning typical south american or asian shops names and then offer north america only remote jobs ?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
starshadowx2 7y ago
"And though we intend to hire remote engineers in Europe and Asia eventually, our hubs in Dublin and Singapore are not sufficiently established to support remotes just yet."
- C4stor 7y ago
  I read that, but the timezone problem doesn't really explain why south america was slashed. Overall it seems a bit strange to explain "we officially have a remote hub" and "remote workers need to be supported by physical hubs".
  - kevsim 7y ago
    "There is substantial organizational, legal, and financial infrastructure required to support each new jurisdiction we hire in, so we have to be measured in how quickly we expand." Each country you want to pay salary in comes with legal aspects. Therefore they have to be a bit tactical with where they try to hire people.
    - greenhatman 7y ago
      I work remotely for a U.S. based company from South Africa. I don't think they do anything special for each different territory. The IRS stuff just has two categories - U.S. and outside U.S. I'd love to apply for an engineering job at Stripe.

jon-wood 7y ago

They clearly state in the article that this is because they aren't currently set up as well to accommodate remote people across disparate time zones, but are looking to resolve that.

Kaveren 7y ago
South America, Mexico, and other North American countries exist in the same timezones as the US and Canada. Is it something to do with hiring regulations being too much of a pain to deal with in countries where Stripe doesn't feel like the best talent is? Additionally, why not just offer remote positions that require you to work US hours? I manage just fine as someone self-employed and remote working with people in the UK. This wouldn't need to be a permanent solution, but I don't see why exclusion is necessary here.
- hyeomans 7y ago
  Mexico is part of North America, remember NAFTA? (North American Free Trade Agreement) It's as easy to hire Mexican remote employees as Canadians, see W8-BEN
  - raverbashing 7y ago
    W8-BEN has nothing to do with work autorization, rather with IRS reporting of accounts.
    - hyeomans 7y ago
      Exactly. Companies are afraid of wiring money to Mexican/Canadian accounts. (IANAL btw, but work remotely from Mexico)
- freehunter 7y ago
  Moving to remote work is hard and filled with problems to begin with. Adding different national holidays, connectivity challenges, cultures, languages, etc on top of that adds to the complexity. If remote work failed, is it because remote work doesn't work, or is it because of employees in different countries, or is it because of cultural differences, or is it because of...? Starting with a limited trial seems a more risk-averse move. If remote work proves itself out, it can be expanded more easily than it can be retracted.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

willio58 7y ago

Is this bad? I think it’s totally understandable.