Ask HN: Who pays for remote worker travel to office?

1 point·causehealth101··8 comments

If a remote job requires occasional visits to the home office (e.g. for 1 week every 2 months), does the employer or employee cover this travel/lodging cost? Thank you!

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Required visits, or even those that imply a visit is required, should compensate you for your travel. This should be done overtly through per diem and reimbursement. A company could try and tell you something like "we pay you more because you'll cover these costs" but that hurts you in regards to taxes.

We are a remote-first company.

Employees all converge on our home office for a company retreat once or twice each year. The company pays for reasonable transportation, lodging, and meal expenses e.g. you can't take first class on Christmas and expect to be reimbursed 100%.

Remote employees can also visit home base semi-regularly, e.g. quarterly, and the company will pay for transportation and lodging (I don't think we pay for meals on optional travel).

Any employee can also attend events and the company will foot the bill as long as it benefits the company or provides professional development e.g. Nodevember, Elixir Conf, and this includes speaking or simply attending.

Thanks for the comprehensive answer, really helpful! Would you say there's a "norm" or are companies all over the map in terms of occasional office visit coverage for their remote employees?

At my last company where >50% of the employees were remote: yes. Although the office-visits were less often. Mostly we got together twice a year.

It’s always been employer paid for me.

Thanks, good to know. And is this at a smaller company (e.g startup) or larger, established company?

Always larger, established company.

employer for me.

employer

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