Comment by mekoka | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mekoka | Hacker News Reader

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Maybe there's something I'm missing about the appeal of H1B, but I don't understand why this announcement would be a big game changer in a post-Covid-19 world. Organizations are in the midst of more drastic adaptations and H1B appears as relevant as the DVD in a world of video streaming. My understanding is that it allowed organizations that were more comfortable doing things the "traditional way", show up to work every day and sit in a cubicle, a way to spend money and energy to bring people over, so that they would do just that. Covid-19 forced them into a reality they dreaded and they survived and are adapting. Now that remote is becoming a norm, the new edge will be to do it across wide regions and time zones, which in my opinion is an even easier adaptation than the previous.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I fail to see the point of H1B in that reality. How did remote-first or remote-only organizations used H1B before March?

As someone who has worked with lots of remote teams, I'll give you a simple answers: timezones matter. A lot. Especially for relatively early stage companies where tight collaboration on new products is key. I have actually refused, and will continue to refuse, work that requires me to collaborate with someone 11.5 hours different. It sucks for everyone involved.

Years ago I had a job when I worked noon-5 and then 10pm-1am to overlap with colleagues in India. At first I thought "Hey, I'm a night owl, this will be great." I grew to hate it pretty quickly, and I'll never do it again.

Contrarily, I've worked with colleagues in Brazil who were only 2 or 3 hours off from me, and it worked out great.

It's been abused in the past, just because you don't see it being abused in the future, doesn't mean that something shouldn't be done about it.

You do realize this world won't last right? There are a lot of states opening up. Hollywood currently is churning losses because they can't release anything. States are opening up and there are very few fatalities.

Some people love 100% remote and choose it, but there a HUGE number of people who do want to be back in the office, at least one or two days a week anyway.

It's used as a modern indentured servitude. I think you said it well, they love the "traditional way", which includes dangling someones life above their heads to get them to work in situations where other people wouldn't put up with it.

To me, it's the legal version of having your passport stolen for ransom in a third world country.

H1-B transfer process is relatively straightforward.

Personally I’m not a fan of the hyperbolic slave-era language used to describe a relatively flexible work visa. Nobody describes the other closed work permits this way.

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