Hacker News Reader

Comment by baskire | Hacker News Reader

And who pays for that?

For many remote work involves less take home pay.

Employees who adjust to the change and moved out of the high cost of living area.

An example from my own circumstances, I was paying $1800/month for a 1 bedroom in Toronto but now for a little bit less I have a 3 bedroom house with a small yard.

And we are seeing some employers adjust pay to location now too. In the end you are also subsidizing the office out of square footage in your home, and reaping none of the benefits such as socializing with people.

Some employers are adjusting for pay location, not all, and mine didn't because the cost of losing me was more than adjusting the salary for the different location.

I am reaping the $200/month transit pass that I no longer need. As a Canadian I'm able to ask my employer for a T2200 to write some of my expenses off even as an employee.

I'm also saving ~5 hours a week in less commute time.

I'm still socializing with those coworkers in our daily water coolers, weekly syncs, Monday & Friday fireside chat.

Companies usually have budget for setting up remote workers and IME are happy to pay for work spaces.

IME they are not happy to pay for work spaces.

A nice chair, a desk, a monitor. (Not that I have space for a nice chair at home!)

But an office? No way.

Perhaps it's because renting an office costs similar to renting a flat where I live (even though you get less space when renting an office).

I have had positive signals towards paying for a desk in a shared workspace... But wait, aren't we working at home to avoid sharing workspaces at the moment?

Developer for a major hospital that's not in a tech hub. An executive suite got trashed, so we got a used chair ($25 donation to one of our company charities "suggested"), and that was it. If we need more WFH gear than that, then we are told we can go work in our limited remaining office space.

I personally want more free WFH gear, but I think our execs are clever. "Oh, you don't have a desk? Nobody is in the office, so we can give you a socially-distanced 15x15' space for free if you drive in."

I'd hope that stance would shift if they didn't see it as a temporary thing. My experience has only been with remote positions where there is no office to attend.

No employer is going to hand me another $400 a month because I need an apartment with another bedroom to serve as the office.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com