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Comment by MivLives | Hacker News Reader

The company I'm working for is struggling with this. They firmly believe in no remote. They won't entertain it for juniors, and generally to get approval you need to be pretty vital. But at the same time they've also opened up multiple offices (that are all in different geos, timezones). What the end result is that in my section of the company I'm effectively remote working from the off as my team has a remote contractor, and the other teams in my area are all dispersed between home and the new other offices. It's frustrating being told to go into work and getting no benefit from it besides a change of scenery. I'm not sure I'm cut out for full remote at least in my current housing situation/skill level.

I suspect other companies are in a similar situation, and it's part of the growing pains of getting larger. But fuck is it hard to be happy with it.

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Dude, you're an employee. If management doesn't respect you, look elsewhere. You're working in IT, it's not like you can't change work. You'll risk getting less money, but if you're happier who cares?

Small note: there are people who cannot change work in IT because it would affect their visa or immigration status.

H1-B transfer is possible if your potential new employer will perform the transfer with USCIS.

(Edit: typo corrected, thanks kaapipo)

*your

IIRC the transfer can affect the green card process depending on the stage you are at. IANAL, check with your immigration attorney.

(this also assumes that the person is on H-1B and not on L-1, which cannot be transferred)

A person on L-1 should've known they will be moving home soon. This works exactly the same in EU and IMHO it's only logical - you'd be able to skip the usual "queue" otherwise.

L-1 can be extended a couple of times (up to 7 years total I think?), so "soon" is relative (especially given that it gives you a couple tries at the H-1B, but only if you can hold on to the job).

I think my main point still stands: you can't always just pack up your things and leave (or rather, you can, but the consequences aren't always a simple job hunt, sometimes they involve relocating internationally) so you may be willing to tolerate more abuse or conditions that are less than perfect for you.

You can also get denied and get kicked out, it's not a guaranteed process AFAIK IANAL.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'm a U.S. citizen, but I have had friends that were not, and I was horrified to hear the stories of how companies (that I worked for at the time as well) were using that 'leverage'.

I will no longer work for those sorts of companies.

It does not necessarily need to be something that companies actively do, it's also that the process is set up that way. For example, I know I was not actively seeking other opportunities until I got my green card. IIRC, even transferring to a slightly different role within the same company could affect how quickly the process progressed (I think part of the paperwork would need to be re-filed).

yup, I have to bear with the bullshit. I love my daughter man.

It's a combination of: I really like my manager and have had much worse, I'm using the company to move me to one of the other locations, and not really minding the going in. I'll probably start looking after the move.

My manager doesn't have much control of the WFH thing, it's the CEOs directive. I'm just a junior engineer with not much sway so my remote request was denied by their bosses boss who has never met me.

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