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One question though. Tools to work fully remote have been around for at least 20 years now. Want to work from Montana in 2001? Webex, messengers, version contro
by twelve40 6y ago
One question though. Tools to work fully remote have been around for at least 20 years now. Want to work from Montana in 2001? Webex, messengers, version control, DSL internet, everything has been there for decades. We also have precedents of major projects (say, open source) shipped by distributed teams since that long, too. Yet, pre-Covid very, very few companies have actually figured out remote. Why? Is it because companies are slow and stupid? Google doesn't seem stupid. Why have they been paying $500k comp in the Bay Area all this time when Tennessee or India were right there all along? Maybe they took special pleasure in pointlessly overpaying and abusing their employees, as you call it?
- goatinaboat 6y agoTools to work fully remote have been around for at least 20 years now. Want to work from Montana in 2001? Longer. Guy I know was perfectly happily WFH running X11 over dual-bonded ISDN a decade before that!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- helge9210 6y ago> Want to work from Montana in 2001? Webex, messengers, version control, DSL internet, everything has been there for decades I started WFH the moment DSL became available in my area in 2003. Was switching to WFH at every work place over commute became unbearable.
- matwood 6y agoI think it's hard to use FAANGs for general trends like this. Google for example in part hires people to keep them from going elsewhere or building a competing company. One of Google's big perks to lure these people is all of the onsite amenities. Google and the other big tech companies are unique in a lot of ways, and in no way represent the average company in the US or even in tech though. What will be interesting is if WFH (I like to say Freedom of Work) continues to take hold, will companies like Google have to adjust or be ok missing out on employees?