5 ms·

Yet, most IT work is on-site. At least in EU.

sofixa 3y ago
The EU is quite vast, and this is untrue at least for France, Netherlands, Bulgaria and from what I can tell Spain and Italy. Even very old school companies (think flag airlines and banks) have at least hybrid with more time remote than not.
voytec 3y ago
Not my experience in over a decade but I'm looking strictly for remote and don't bother with hybrid/onsite.
- FeistySkink 3y ago
  Mind sharing how you approach this?
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    Just responding only to open positions mentionning remote work or stating that you want remote only to the thousands of head hunters in linkedin is enough.
    - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
      What if no headhunters in your area have jobs that offer remote work?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - sokoloff 3y ago
        What does "in your area" really mean when looking for remote work? Are you referring to speciality or geographic area? For some specialities, if the specialty doesn't have remote work (say it's robotics or biotech or something else with a heavy lab component), you might be out of luck. If it's geographic, well, find headhunters in another geography.
        ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        >What does "in your area" really mean when looking for remote work? Due to employment, tax and labor laws in my country, remote work still has to be done for a company that has a presence in my country. I can't have an employment contract with a company not based here, only B-2-B. So remote basically limits me to local companies, which don't usually offer 100% remote work posibilities.
        prmoustache 3y ago
        you can but you need to setup your own company and work as a contractor.
        ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        That's what B-2-B is, which is what I said. And it sucks because then you loose the employment perks of being an employee: sick leave, parental leve, included healthcare, paid time off, etc.
        prmoustache 3y ago
        You can negociate some of those in the term of your b2b contract. And in the case of healthcare, the company supposedly doesn't have to pay for it so they can pay that additionnal amount to you directly.
      - taormina 3y ago
        Find better headhunters. They do work on commission
        ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        Whenever I ask them about remote companies they all say they don't have such customers, they all want people in the office.
  - voytec 3y ago
    Currently I'm happy with what I found on HN's Who's Hiring [1] post. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring
housingisaright 3y ago
I know of 0 friends who needs to go to an office currently. Most do to meet co-workers occasionally. I work in Sweden
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago
  There's no wide mandated EU stance on this. Hugely depends on your country. I work in Austria and most companies have mandatory office days due to outdated employment and insurance laws that discourage WFH, and micromanaging asshole company bosses who think that because they can't see you sitting at your desk then you must be slacking off at home on their dime, so they bullshit you and brainwash youngsters with "WFH destroys team spirit and cooperation so we 'choose' to spend 2h/day commuting to the office to be more efficient, but don't worry, because our office has free coffee and fresh fruits, ping-pong and foosball tables to de-stress and build team bonds" FUD. 100% WFH is incredibly rare privilege here. One of my friends broke his leg skiing and couldn't drive to the office anymore so the company instead of letting him WFH, they paid 40 Euros per day for taxis to pick him up from home and drive him to the office every day for almost 2 months. Absolutely mental. I assume Sweden is more forward and progressive.
  - higeorge13 3y ago
    But you can work in remote companies in different EU countries..
    - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
      No, not really. Austrian labor laws says if you work with an employment contract, then your employer must have a legal presence in Austria to pay Austrian employer taxes and conform to Austrian labor laws, and no company wants to do that. There are some middle-men companies to interface this but they take a deep cut and not everyone want to deal with that hassle. So your other option is a B-2-B contract but then you could end up paying higher taxes and now you don't even get the included healthcare and pension contributions, and don't get any of the perks an employee gets like mandatory 25 vacation days, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, etc. You're on your own, just you and your money having to pay for everything privately even after you paid a bunch in taxes. And fully EU remote companies get huge amounts of applications, hundreds per open position, that it's nearly impossible to stand out if you're not an experienced senior as you're competing with people from lower CoL areas with much lower B-2-B taxes, making it not worth it for you if you live here and don't cash in over six figures to cover your loss. EU-wide employment is still not a thing, as you're still locked-in and tied to the tax and legal system of your country of residence and its employment laws.

The EU is quite vast, and this is untrue at least for France, Netherlands, Bulgaria and from what I can tell Spain and Italy. Even very old school companies (think flag airlines and banks) have at least hybrid with more time remote than not.

voytec 3y ago

Not my experience in over a decade but I'm looking strictly for remote and don't bother with hybrid/onsite.

FeistySkink 3y ago
Mind sharing how you approach this?
- prmoustache 3y ago
  Just responding only to open positions mentionning remote work or stating that you want remote only to the thousands of head hunters in linkedin is enough.
  - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
    What if no headhunters in your area have jobs that offer remote work?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - sokoloff 3y ago
      What does "in your area" really mean when looking for remote work? Are you referring to speciality or geographic area? For some specialities, if the specialty doesn't have remote work (say it's robotics or biotech or something else with a heavy lab component), you might be out of luck. If it's geographic, well, find headhunters in another geography.
      - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        >What does "in your area" really mean when looking for remote work? Due to employment, tax and labor laws in my country, remote work still has to be done for a company that has a presence in my country. I can't have an employment contract with a company not based here, only B-2-B. So remote basically limits me to local companies, which don't usually offer 100% remote work posibilities.
        prmoustache 3y ago
        you can but you need to setup your own company and work as a contractor.
        ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        That's what B-2-B is, which is what I said. And it sucks because then you loose the employment perks of being an employee: sick leave, parental leve, included healthcare, paid time off, etc.
        prmoustache 3y ago
        You can negociate some of those in the term of your b2b contract. And in the case of healthcare, the company supposedly doesn't have to pay for it so they can pay that additionnal amount to you directly.
    - taormina 3y ago
      Find better headhunters. They do work on commission
      - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
        Whenever I ask them about remote companies they all say they don't have such customers, they all want people in the office.
- voytec 3y ago
  Currently I'm happy with what I found on HN's Who's Hiring [1] post. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring

housingisaright 3y ago

I know of 0 friends who needs to go to an office currently. Most do to meet co-workers occasionally. I work in Sweden

ChuckNorris89 3y ago
There's no wide mandated EU stance on this. Hugely depends on your country. I work in Austria and most companies have mandatory office days due to outdated employment and insurance laws that discourage WFH, and micromanaging asshole company bosses who think that because they can't see you sitting at your desk then you must be slacking off at home on their dime, so they bullshit you and brainwash youngsters with "WFH destroys team spirit and cooperation so we 'choose' to spend 2h/day commuting to the office to be more efficient, but don't worry, because our office has free coffee and fresh fruits, ping-pong and foosball tables to de-stress and build team bonds" FUD. 100% WFH is incredibly rare privilege here. One of my friends broke his leg skiing and couldn't drive to the office anymore so the company instead of letting him WFH, they paid 40 Euros per day for taxis to pick him up from home and drive him to the office every day for almost 2 months. Absolutely mental. I assume Sweden is more forward and progressive.
- higeorge13 3y ago
  But you can work in remote companies in different EU countries..
  - ChuckNorris89 3y ago
    No, not really. Austrian labor laws says if you work with an employment contract, then your employer must have a legal presence in Austria to pay Austrian employer taxes and conform to Austrian labor laws, and no company wants to do that. There are some middle-men companies to interface this but they take a deep cut and not everyone want to deal with that hassle. So your other option is a B-2-B contract but then you could end up paying higher taxes and now you don't even get the included healthcare and pension contributions, and don't get any of the perks an employee gets like mandatory 25 vacation days, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, etc. You're on your own, just you and your money having to pay for everything privately even after you paid a bunch in taxes. And fully EU remote companies get huge amounts of applications, hundreds per open position, that it's nearly impossible to stand out if you're not an experienced senior as you're competing with people from lower CoL areas with much lower B-2-B taxes, making it not worth it for you if you live here and don't cash in over six figures to cover your loss. EU-wide employment is still not a thing, as you're still locked-in and tied to the tax and legal system of your country of residence and its employment laws.