4 ms·

It's not a trade. The worker just loses.

by scollet 5y ago

paulcole 5y ago
What if they need the money?
- loco5niner 5y ago
  I imagine they could find some way to make money with an extra 10 hours a week.
  - paulcole 5y ago
    They already have! They earn that money while they’re driving to the office.
    - loco5niner 5y ago
      My company moved from Oregon to Washington. When this happened my commute increased by about 7 hours per week. They didn't suddenly start paying me for the extra time.
remus 5y ago
> It's not a trade. The worker just loses. How so? Money (pay decrease) for time (no commuting = 10 hours of your life back every week) seems like a pretty classic trade.
- jatone 5y ago
  because that time wasn't spent on work anyways. it was already 'free' for the company. this is literally just trying to claw back money for a perk people really like. the fact companies pay different rates based on locale is insane given the value of the work a person contributes to a company is independent of said location.
- scollet 5y ago
  If you're already compensated for the commute then it's a different story.
TrackerFF 5y ago
I see the point that someone views this as a direct (almost arbitrary) loss for the worker. Why should they simply get less for working from home? But realistically speaking, let's assume 261 working days in a year, which comes out to 522 hours of commute. That's 522 hours of unpaid travel, every year. That's 65 8-hour working days. How much is your time worth? For me, it's far more than the 10% pay cut. And I haven't even included the direct cost of travel (gas, wear and tear on vehicle, etc.), just hours lost.
morpheos137 5y ago
the worker can always quit and work elsewhere if he can find a better deal. the attitude of entitlement among many bay area tech workers is astounding. At the end of the day your labor is worth the supply vs. demand market equilibrium. It should be obvious to intelligent people like tech workers that the ability to remote work expands the labor supply dropping wages. You can't expect to have your cake and eat it too.
sumtechguy 5y ago
That depends on how you value your freetime. I once went from a 30min commute to 2 min. Just that small amount of freetime (1 hour basically) let me get a lot more things done in a day. I could also realistically 'go home for lunch'. Which cut my lunch expenses way down. Now up front if you had said I am going to cut your pay by 10% because of that. I would not have done it. But after having done it I would deeply consider it.

It's not a trade. The worker just loses.

paulcole 5y ago

What if they need the money?

loco5niner 5y ago
I imagine they could find some way to make money with an extra 10 hours a week.
- paulcole 5y ago
  They already have! They earn that money while they’re driving to the office.
  - loco5niner 5y ago
    My company moved from Oregon to Washington. When this happened my commute increased by about 7 hours per week. They didn't suddenly start paying me for the extra time.

remus 5y ago

> It's not a trade. The worker just loses. How so? Money (pay decrease) for time (no commuting = 10 hours of your life back every week) seems like a pretty classic trade.

jatone 5y ago
because that time wasn't spent on work anyways. it was already 'free' for the company. this is literally just trying to claw back money for a perk people really like. the fact companies pay different rates based on locale is insane given the value of the work a person contributes to a company is independent of said location.
scollet 5y ago
If you're already compensated for the commute then it's a different story.

TrackerFF 5y ago

I see the point that someone views this as a direct (almost arbitrary) loss for the worker. Why should they simply get less for working from home? But realistically speaking, let's assume 261 working days in a year, which comes out to 522 hours of commute. That's 522 hours of unpaid travel, every year. That's 65 8-hour working days. How much is your time worth? For me, it's far more than the 10% pay cut. And I haven't even included the direct cost of travel (gas, wear and tear on vehicle, etc.), just hours lost.

morpheos137 5y ago

the worker can always quit and work elsewhere if he can find a better deal. the attitude of entitlement among many bay area tech workers is astounding. At the end of the day your labor is worth the supply vs. demand market equilibrium. It should be obvious to intelligent people like tech workers that the ability to remote work expands the labor supply dropping wages. You can't expect to have your cake and eat it too.

sumtechguy 5y ago

That depends on how you value your freetime. I once went from a 30min commute to 2 min. Just that small amount of freetime (1 hour basically) let me get a lot more things done in a day. I could also realistically 'go home for lunch'. Which cut my lunch expenses way down. Now up front if you had said I am going to cut your pay by 10% because of that. I would not have done it. But after having done it I would deeply consider it.