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Comment by Scene_Cast2 | Hacker News Reader

I think the distinction here is a person with a "battlestation" (good monitor, good internet, area with relatively few distractions, etc) versus a person that has no area dedicated to using a computer: possibly a shared apartment (noise and space), wifi that drops out, no good computer desk, and a million other "paper cuts" that make it difficult.

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Those issues you described can be resolved with $300 in retail purchases: noise canceling headphones, a wifi router, and an Ikea style desk. Add $100 for a decent office chair. It is not an unreasonable amount of money in most of the USA.

"Not an unreasonable amount" various heavily, not just from location to location, but from person to person and circumstance to circumstance. With all the other barriers to employment in skilled disciplines, should it now be a requirement for employment that you have enough liquid cash to pay for setting up your own office?

> should it now be a requirement for employment that you have enough liquid cash to pay for setting up your own office?

Any firm worth working for will have this as either a stipend, or otherwise handled as part of hiring remote workers. Any one that doesn't make it easy and cheap to be comfortable and productive remotely will miss out on talent because of that.

Not to mention, it's tax deductible.

>> Any firm worth working for will have this as either a stipend, or otherwise handled as part of hiring remote workers.

This is just not true. I have never worked for a colocated company that pays for you to set up your home office. Most do not hire remote works either so there is no predefined (and budgeted) setup

We'll also see if in the face of double-digit unemployment (don't think that's going to resolve itself the minute we get back to work) companies that don't have these discretionary benefits loose out on talent...

Just because a position is filled, that doesn't necessarily mean it's filled by the most-talented person.

It's entirely possible to lose out on remote talent by skimping on the remote experience, while still "successfully" filling the position.

That’s like a carpenter showing up for work without tools

Is it really impossible to invest in the tools of your trade?

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