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I agree with you that most of the general HR arguments don’t hold water and are philosophical at best. All they try to do is hide the fact that you are not paid

I agree with you that most of the general HR arguments don’t hold water and are philosophical at best. All they try to do is hide the fact that you are not paid the way you are because of your talent or efforts. In most EU/commonwealth countries you can thank unionism for the benefits you have. For multinationals, one thing to note is the location of the employees normally has very little to do with the talent and staff costs but mostly tax, politics/corruption, networking, or leadership preferences. Employee talent and costs are really generally not the focus of why companies setup shop where they do. It can mess with your mind, and feel really unjust when you know of US sized bonuses going out that equate to more than full time salary in other regions doing equivalent roles. Even staff that are generally mediocre can often wing it whilst others go over and above getting a pittance. It helps my sanity to know that we are all just cogs in a system and it’s not at all personal. Salary is a cost for doing business in some locations and everyone is completely replaceable. Also AI is probably going to wipe the floor of us all soon enough…

badpun 4y ago
> Employee talent and costs are really generally not the focus of why companies setup shop where they do. I don't think that's the case. For example, there are plenty of large, mutlinational companies opening offices in Poland and hiring hundreds or even thousands of devs there specifically because you can get competent people for a fraction of what they'd cost in the company's mother country. Also, of course it's important for them that Poland meets the sane baseline you'd expect from a civilized country, in terms of infrastructure, stability, rule of law etc. - but once these conditions are ok, I think it's mostly about the levels of pay. Most companies at the top levels are ruled by bean counters after all, and they're are always looking for ways to increase profit (and hence stock value) - and reducing wages is a great and easy fix for that.
- cabbagesauce 4y ago
  So true! I wouldn't even start telling that Google not just underpays polish employees but cuts on the RSUs claiming that TC is adjusted to location based pay. In the end it turned out the whole non-US IT world is a sweatshop now. Not like it wasn't like this before, but with exposure from apps like Blind the 500 pound elephant is no longer to be ignored. Plus, the whole crybaby about remote work being kewl is USA-driven cost/time employee savings rationale too. In Europe, remote doesn't make much sense because it's 2x times smaller than the US.

badpun 4y ago

> Employee talent and costs are really generally not the focus of why companies setup shop where they do. I don't think that's the case. For example, there are plenty of large, mutlinational companies opening offices in Poland and hiring hundreds or even thousands of devs there specifically because you can get competent people for a fraction of what they'd cost in the company's mother country. Also, of course it's important for them that Poland meets the sane baseline you'd expect from a civilized country, in terms of infrastructure, stability, rule of law etc. - but once these conditions are ok, I think it's mostly about the levels of pay. Most companies at the top levels are ruled by bean counters after all, and they're are always looking for ways to increase profit (and hence stock value) - and reducing wages is a great and easy fix for that.

cabbagesauce 4y ago
So true! I wouldn't even start telling that Google not just underpays polish employees but cuts on the RSUs claiming that TC is adjusted to location based pay. In the end it turned out the whole non-US IT world is a sweatshop now. Not like it wasn't like this before, but with exposure from apps like Blind the 500 pound elephant is no longer to be ignored. Plus, the whole crybaby about remote work being kewl is USA-driven cost/time employee savings rationale too. In Europe, remote doesn't make much sense because it's 2x times smaller than the US.