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I feel this way about remote work. I've been working in tech since 2008. Nobody ever cared where anyone worked from. I've spent many summers digital nomaddin
by bsimpson 2y ago
I feel this way about remote work.
I've been working in tech since 2008. Nobody ever cared where anyone worked from. I've spent many summers digital nomadding.
Then, the pandemic happened and some reporters started writing articles about it, as if it was invented during the pandemic. HR departments got wind, and now many companies have formal policies about how many days you're supposed to badge in, or how long you're allowed to work remotely.
There's a journalistic trend churning out bullshit stories about "quiet quitting" et. al. and I hate it. Executives take them at face value and make reactionary policies based on some filler they read online.
- duxup 2y agoThe quiet quitting stories were weird as the definition varied wildly from people who did no work to people who were just miffed about work…
- Loughla 2y agoThe articles I read just made the people seem like they were doing their job as the description was written. I still don't understand that whole thing.
- radpanda 2y ago> Nobody ever cared where anyone worked from Was it really this way in general or just with some little startups who didn’t mind taking risks? As far as I remember employers always cared where remote workers were for tax and other reasons (sanctions, compliance with local regulations, etc).
- bsimpson 2y agoI've been at Google for 10y and include that time in my anecdote.
- kelipso 2y agoCompanies don’t actually keep track of that. You give them an address and they rely on you to update it.
- golergka 2y agoSo this relies on employee choosing to lie about his current address and location?
- kelipso 2y agoI believe you only need to work at a particular location for 6 months in a year to be considered a resident for tax purposes. But yeah there’s a certain flexibility with the truth if you go over but it’s not like the biggest deal since you’re paying state taxes either way and not that many people do it anyway.
- klipt 2y ago> resident for tax purposes Resident just means that country taxes your worldwide income. Even if non tax resident they have a claim to income earned in that country, which arguably includes remote work while you live there. Depending on local laws, not legal or tax advice etc
- Scoundreller 2y ago> Depending on local laws It gets even more complicated when treaties are involved because they’ll supercede the law, have a lot less jurisprudence and are often unreadable gobblygook. You end up with rules like (paraphrasing): “If a member of a contracting state contracts in the other contracting state, they will only pay taxes in their other contracting state”
- forgetfreeman 2y agoI vividly recall a coworker skyping into a department all-hands via satphone from the galapagos and we were doing work for the ACLU and Unicef at the time, not exactly a garage band startup.
- ted_dunning 2y agoThat can be tricky if you don't have a business that allows you to work. Mostly works. And then you run into some country that doesn't think it's cool. The US has just joined the club of countries who arrest people on that basis, but there have been quite a few others for a while.