Ask HN: Why don't FAANG have a larger remote work force?
Am I misinformed that most FAANG engineers do not work remotely?
Is that a bad sign for remote work? If the top companies do not do it, why should the smaller companies?
Is that a bad sign for remote work? If the top companies do not do it, why should the smaller companies?
2. Some percentage of workers enjoy being on-site, especially at a nice office. Large companies have so many qualified job applicants that they can select only people who want to work on-site. In my experience, it's very hard -- though still possible -- to staff a growing startup with only local workers (unless you make some compromises).
3. Large companies have already built large buildings or signed long leases for office space. It's a lot more expensive for them to transition to remote work.
> If the top companies do not do it, why should the smaller companies?
It seems like you're suggesting small companies should imitate large companies. This doesn't make sense for several reasons.
Large companies with massive reserves of cash can tolerate lots of overhead (office space being one of them).
Further, large companies have fewer employees operating in silos. While a startup might have a single marketing person, a single front-end person, etc., a large company will have many teams for each function.
When you have more decisions being made across larger teams, you have more decisions made by committee, and in-person meetings seem like the most efficient way to move forward.
A startup, meanwhile, may need to offer appealing options like remote work to gain similar levels of talent.