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Comment by thomascgalvin | Hacker News Reader

A few years ago, I moved to Boston for a tech job. The cost of living was like 25% higher, but my salary almost doubled, so I came out for the better.

This job was on-site, so there was no choice but to live here. And by "here" I mean a 60- to 90- minute commute, both ways.

Now? My job is 100% remote, and any job I would consider would have to be 100% remote. Assuming this trend continues, I think we'll see an exodus from high cost of living areas to (slightly) smaller towns.

People are still going to want to live in places that have services, entertainment, and so on, so this isn't going to gut cities, but it will make living in the sticks more plausible.

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> and any job I would consider would have to be 100% remote.

The problem is that if you lose your job this plan will crumble on first contact with the enemy. I'm job hunting right now, and between 'ghost jobs', bad recruiters, low ballers, take-homes with unstated requirements, leetcode grinding, system design studying, optimization for "best talent, lowest salary", and the fact that workers have absolutely no power means you don't have a choice how you work at some point.

Once savings start to dry up, you'll work in person. You'll move if they ask, you'll take a lower salary and a worse position... after all, do you want to eat?

It's time to unionize the tech sector. Can you imagine how industrial action (shutting down APIs) could cripple a fortune 500 company. Sadly people don't act in their best interest. Execs and capitalists only hold power as long as we give them power.

> time to unionize the tech sector

It makes more sense to focus on the capital-intensive and oligopolistic parts, e.g. cloud computing, social media and advertising. Tech, broadly, maintains a threat of new entrants.

You make some great points. Good times in tech has given some false sense of security.

It all depends. I am remote for the last 20+ years. I have my own company but still I have to find new clients and I did not really have problems in that department.

Freelancing is a whole different game. Once you've built your network and brand you have options. I'd love to be a freelancer but I'm not competent enough with the self promotion/marketing, and couldn't handle the mental toll of the lean months.

What industry are you in?

In the technology sector, our income and share of remote work is actually pretty good. For example, most of us (in the U.S., in technology) are in or close to the top 10% of individual incomes in the United States.

It is also possible for talented people to set up their own businesses, even though we all have spent our entire childhood having it drilled into our heads that our purpose is to serve for somebody else.

I'm going through this right now but already have a remote contracting job for less than I was making but putting out feelers for in-person. The in-person jobs are usually an hour away and pay more.

Problem is waking up everyday at 6:30 am so I can be in office by 9 is a huge mental and physical stress. Moving closer isn't an option because I own my house. Right now my thinking is do I want to spend an extra 4-5 hours per day on my career just to work in a shitty cubicle for only 30k more? I'm honestly leaning towards putting up with less money and waiting for another opportunity to cross my path.

If shit really hits the fan I can sell my California house and buy a whole house outright in another part of the country and sustain myself easily. I'm just choosing to stay here but I really don't have to.

Similar story. I have been remote for a decade, acquired real estate in LCOL locales, and have prioritized financial independence so that if I ever end up not being able to find another remote job after my last, I don't ever have to go back into an office. It is about having agency over how one wants to live their life and the freedom one wants. You will never get that time back. Life is short, and a commute is a waste of life. I prefer to not waste life for corporate upper management feels about in person work.

What we save on living in a HCOL locale, we can spend on traveling several months out of the year while I work remote.

I live close enough to access an expensive metro but I'm far enough out my property isn't that expensive plus I bought it a long time ago. Only commuted in for while and, then, not every day. Other commutes--when I've done them--have been reasonable drives.

Over the years I occasionally toyed with buying a small city place but, in addition to the increasing real estate prices, I always came back to the fact that I can always get a hotel or whatever in that or any other city if I want to spend some time in an urban location.

> People are still going to want to live in places that have services, entertainment, and so on, so this isn't going to gut cities, but it will make living in the sticks more plausible.

The mass exodus already happened.

Everybody who wanted to leave what they thought was overpriced pretty much already did.

We might see some continuation - but given that companies are trying to claw back as much remote work as possible - I'm skeptical.

I'm now entering my eighth year of working full-time remote since 2008. Had a big gap between 2013 and COVID, but I don't see myself ever going back.

South Carolina is too choice of a place to live.

Enjoy it man. Less stress and no commute is the way to go. Small city life FTW!.

I moved to Greenville, South Carolina when COVID hit and absolutely loved it. Perfect weather, good balance of space, cost, and still enough active cities if one wants to eat at nice restaurants.

But I'm not sure anywhere was gutted to see them go. Some people hate being around others, many love denser communities.

My biggest fear about remote work is the trend will reverse and I'll be at a huge disadvantage trying to negotiate a new position. Though everything I've read seems to indicate the trend is here to stay.

I read that Jamie Dimon's office is a fully decked out apartment on Park Ave (NYC) so for all his griping about remote work, he essentially works from home full time.

Remote for 20+ years. I am in Canada

I'm sure Diamond would be happy to have company provided housing, and pay employees in company script that is good at the company store -- imagine the profit potential!

I'd take a paycut just to work from home. My parents aren't getting any younger and I want them to spend time with my children and I want them to experience small city life.

The perverse side-effect is that smaller towns are getting expensive as hell too as more and more people don't care about staying in the city. Things raised ~30% in the last 5 years in my area, in a medium-sized agricultural town some ways outside Montreal.

I've been remote for 20 years now... It just gets easier every year. I see no reason to back now...

Fully remote work being the norm has been proven to be a COVID phenomenon. A large portion of tech companies small or large have been pushing for at least 2-3 office days ever since lockdown measures ended.

Fully remote work doesn't eliminate the risk of layoffs throwing a wrench into your life. It's only viable for senior/staff level devs who have much higher job mobility compared to everyone else in the tech sector.

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