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Comment by DubiousPusher | Hacker News Reader

Friends and family keep asking me if I'm moving out of my metro area or if I'll move to the deep xurbs. But I've held off any such machinations exactly because of this. My employer has embraced WFH beyond the pandemic but all it takes is a couple bad quarters and a new CEO deciding that working from home is "part of the problem" and "work from the office" is part of some shiny new turnaround plan.

And you never know when you might need a job and the best you can come up with is one with a company with this kind of control freak attendance culture.

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We've seen an exodus from London, people buying houses in remoter parts of the country on the basis that they will be able to continue to WFH after the pandemic is over. Personally I think that is quite a rash decision to make right now.

It depends on the company and the individual situation of course. But everything I see suggests that coming in on a fairly regular basis (like 1-2 days per week) is going to be more common than being fully remote, which will generally be on a case by case basis.

Of course if coming into a office is a few days every few weeks sort of thing, people can travel greater distances to do that.

> rash decision?

Maybe they like to WFH and they are good at what they do. If they can buy a house and pay half in repayments than what they were paying in rent, then is that rash decision?

I'd rather earn less and have a house and no commute.

Maybe its a case of people realising that there are other ways of living.

The rash decision is in the risk of their employer deciding to forbid WFH post-covid and they now have the decision of a a long commute or looking for a new job.

If my employer were to offer permanent remote (in writing), I'd list my house and move out of the Bay Area that minute. It's literally the only thing keeping me in this expensive pit.

You've got to get it in writing though, as you say the policy could be changed on a whim and then you're stuck! Also, I wouldn't trust a recruiter who promised WFH unless they promised it in writing. Recruiters can say whatever nonsense they want in order to convince you to join, and then once you do, it's "oopsie! I was totally wrong about that whole WFH thing. Please report to your office building on Monday!"

An offer "in writing" means effectively nothing in the US. I'm not sure where people get this idea. Your employment is, for all intents and purposes, "at-will" even if it's not technically codified in law due to the high burden of proof on the employee. If your employer wants to change the contract, you've got an uphill battle to keeping the original terms AND your job.

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