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Office work requires living within commute distance of the office, which is much more expensive and keeps the employee tethered to their job. Remote workers are

Office work requires living within commute distance of the office, which is much more expensive and keeps the employee tethered to their job. Remote workers are less threatened by layoffs because they can choose to live in a lower COL area and have their pick of other remote-friendly jobs rather than being limited to other companies in their metro or having to uproot their lives to move somewhere else. This is on top of the perceived benefits employers have surveiling and micromanaging office work. As for workers having fewer protections rn, gestures in the general direction of DC.

gruez 2y ago
>Office work requires living within commute distance of the office, which is much more expensive and keeps the employee tethered to their job. Remote workers are less threatened by layoffs because they can choose to live in a lower COL area and have their pick of other remote-friendly jobs rather than being limited to other companies in their metro or having to uproot their lives to move somewhere else. This doesn't make any sense. Remote jobs are... remote. Moving to mountain view or whatever doesn't make you "limited to other companies in their metro". You can still find remote jobs, but now you have the additional option of in-person jobs in the bay area.
- i_am_proteus 2y ago
  If you move to Mountain View, you need to be able to afford to live in Mountain View. That takes a lot of remote jobs off the table, or substantially diminishes their prospects. If you live in Omaha and work remotely, far more remote jobs are available.
- photonthug 2y ago
  Fang companies have colluded together before to surpress the labor market, litigation about this goes back to 2010 or so. Since that’s always an option.. yeah clearly keeping talent in high col places is a part of the cudgel that employers want to use against employees. It’s similar to healthcare being connected to employment really. If the labor market was actually free from ultimately coercive tactics like this then the world would look very different.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  Yes. But living in Orlando Florida means I can accept a remote job that pays less. I would have to get a remote job that pays 5x more and I don’t pay state income taxes. Remote jobs on average pay less because you are competing with people who live in the MiddleOfNowhere Nebraska. Even formerly “field by design” roles that were permanently remote at AWS (where I use to work) paid less than in office jobs. Now those jobs are also in office jobs at both Amazon and Google (GCP).

gruez 2y ago

>Office work requires living within commute distance of the office, which is much more expensive and keeps the employee tethered to their job. Remote workers are less threatened by layoffs because they can choose to live in a lower COL area and have their pick of other remote-friendly jobs rather than being limited to other companies in their metro or having to uproot their lives to move somewhere else. This doesn't make any sense. Remote jobs are... remote. Moving to mountain view or whatever doesn't make you "limited to other companies in their metro". You can still find remote jobs, but now you have the additional option of in-person jobs in the bay area.

i_am_proteus 2y ago
If you move to Mountain View, you need to be able to afford to live in Mountain View. That takes a lot of remote jobs off the table, or substantially diminishes their prospects. If you live in Omaha and work remotely, far more remote jobs are available.
photonthug 2y ago
Fang companies have colluded together before to surpress the labor market, litigation about this goes back to 2010 or so. Since that’s always an option.. yeah clearly keeping talent in high col places is a part of the cudgel that employers want to use against employees. It’s similar to healthcare being connected to employment really. If the labor market was actually free from ultimately coercive tactics like this then the world would look very different.
scarface_74 2y ago
Yes. But living in Orlando Florida means I can accept a remote job that pays less. I would have to get a remote job that pays 5x more and I don’t pay state income taxes. Remote jobs on average pay less because you are competing with people who live in the MiddleOfNowhere Nebraska. Even formerly “field by design” roles that were permanently remote at AWS (where I use to work) paid less than in office jobs. Now those jobs are also in office jobs at both Amazon and Google (GCP).