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Comment by Garlef | Hacker News Reader

> That’s a lot of pointless overhead costs that hurt the bottom line.

Or put the other way: Remote work let's the employee pay for the office space.

Not quite, you're going to be paying rent for example regardless, you may have to invest in some office furniture which is usually subsidized but if not then consider the savings you would make through the year overall, perhaps transportation costs, lunches etc. Things add up fiscally. Ignoring the lifestyle benefits.

In many places on Earth one would need to pay a substantially higher rent/price to get an extra room to use as an office. And in a family situation one would ideally need two extra rooms...

Yes, but in a remote work family you can buy an house everywhere. You pay a lot less in rent outside the city.

You don't have work anymore as a constraint, but it's not the only constraint to where people live.

If you are single and want to live alone, you can certainly optimize the hell out of housing costs. But of course, each single constraint you remove will probably let you reduce your costs by a bit.

Working remote need not be conflated with wanting to live in the suburbs. Indeed part of the reason I negotiated remote was because I live downtown, and the office is way out in the burbs.

This is nominally true but when I was looking for a place to rent I needed to be sure it had a space for remote work, which made it more expensive. I tried working from a desk in a wide part of my hallway or in my room (shared with my spouse) and it really didn't work. If you have young kids a separate room is pretty much a must, and ideally, a separate structure (like a small backyard office).

Yeah, I guess this aspect is underappreciated here on HN: most "hackers" also hack in their spare time, so probably already have a desk (maybe even a separate room) where they have good working conditions at home.

I do this too, but generally after the kids go to bed in which case the couch is fine.

It's generally more expensive to buy/rent a smaller place in a metro area near the office and commute there than it is to buy/rent a place with a home office in a more reasonably priced area.

When all expenses are considered, working in-office can (and often does) cost the employee way more money than remote.

That tradeoff is worth it to me because driving on the freeway every day is nerve wracking and soul destroying.

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