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The main potential savings is not from avoiding office leases, it's from hiring engineers for 1/3 of the cost or less from places like Europe, India, and Brazil

The main potential savings is not from avoiding office leases, it's from hiring engineers for 1/3 of the cost or less from places like Europe, India, and Brazil.

whichquestion 6y ago
Large software companies already do this and have offices internationally.
nicksergeant 6y ago
Time zone sensitivity is a very real thing for companies who hire remotely, so I don’t think this is necessarily going to change. Much of the “<current employee> can now work remotely” is likely predicated on the fact that those employees are in the same time zone.
- owl57 6y ago
  Effective time zone is somewhat more personal, though. As a night owl, working with local early risers sucks a lot.
voisin 6y ago
Why do you need to institute any new WFH policies as applicable at the domestic level to do this? They’ve already been doing this presumably to the extent they wanted.
foogazi 6y ago
What stops them from doing that already? Facebook has offices in Brazil: https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/saopaulo/?p[offices][0]=São%20Paulo%2C%20Brazil&offices[0]=São%20Paulo%2C%20Brazil https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/saopaulo/?p[offic... Why didn’t they close down the Palo Alto office already?
- moises_silva 6y ago
  Brazil is a big country, not everyone lives in São Paulo. Why would they close Palo Alto in any case? they want to add to the talent pool, not exchange it. Also, not everywhere you see offices they have engineering teams. The same narrow-minded policies of having teams co-located prevents them from hiring engineers there even if they have offices there. As a data point, I turned down an offer for FB Palo Alto, one of the main reasons being having to relocate from Toronto. They have offices in Toronto, but no engineering. Bottom line, they might have some presence in some major cities, but if they're serious about remote work the talent pool definitely grows significantly.
- highfrequency 6y ago
  Yes, remote work has always been a thing. The claim is that COVID will accelerate the trend toward a global and remote workforce. Companies have been forced into large-scale WFH experiments. If the experiments show that productivity is totally fine without open office plans and in-person collaboration over lunch break, then they will inevitably ask why they shouldn't save a ton of money by hiring a greater proportion of engineers outside of the Bay Area.

The main potential savings is not from avoiding office leases, it's from hiring engineers for 1/3 of the cost or less from places like Europe, India, and Brazil.

whichquestion 6y ago

Large software companies already do this and have offices internationally.

nicksergeant 6y ago

Time zone sensitivity is a very real thing for companies who hire remotely, so I don’t think this is necessarily going to change. Much of the “<current employee> can now work remotely” is likely predicated on the fact that those employees are in the same time zone.

owl57 6y ago
Effective time zone is somewhat more personal, though. As a night owl, working with local early risers sucks a lot.

voisin 6y ago

Why do you need to institute any new WFH policies as applicable at the domestic level to do this? They’ve already been doing this presumably to the extent they wanted.

foogazi 6y ago

What stops them from doing that already? Facebook has offices in Brazil: https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/saopaulo/?p[offices][0]=São%20Paulo%2C%20Brazil&offices[0]=São%20Paulo%2C%20Brazil https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/saopaulo/?p[offic... Why didn’t they close down the Palo Alto office already?

moises_silva 6y ago
Brazil is a big country, not everyone lives in São Paulo. Why would they close Palo Alto in any case? they want to add to the talent pool, not exchange it. Also, not everywhere you see offices they have engineering teams. The same narrow-minded policies of having teams co-located prevents them from hiring engineers there even if they have offices there. As a data point, I turned down an offer for FB Palo Alto, one of the main reasons being having to relocate from Toronto. They have offices in Toronto, but no engineering. Bottom line, they might have some presence in some major cities, but if they're serious about remote work the talent pool definitely grows significantly.
highfrequency 6y ago
Yes, remote work has always been a thing. The claim is that COVID will accelerate the trend toward a global and remote workforce. Companies have been forced into large-scale WFH experiments. If the experiments show that productivity is totally fine without open office plans and in-person collaboration over lunch break, then they will inevitably ask why they shouldn't save a ton of money by hiring a greater proportion of engineers outside of the Bay Area.