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Comment by Aurornis | Hacker News Reader

I don't know. When a company uses RTO to reduce headcount they usually include all employees, with the expectation that those who live far away from the office will resign instead of relocate.

If I'm reading this right, it only applies to people who already live within 50 miles of the office. Remote-remote employees are exempt.

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How many employees do you think msft has that don’t live within that 50 mile radius? I’d bet it’s an incredibly small percentage.

They chose 50 miles because it’s big enough to cover almost everyone. I’m within that but my commute is two hours one direction.

Redmond only

The 50 mile radius touches Olympia, and that's a conservative centering on building 92. It's basically everybody that they hire in western Washington.

If it is really two hours by a reasonable route then you likely have a case that the commute is unreasonable and you would not have taken the job without them paying moving expenses if it offered that way. Therefore they need to offer moving expenses. I'd ask the boss first as they may have contacts in hr that can handle this.

If they won't offer moving expenses odds are you can convince an unemployment judge this is an unreasonable change in working conditions and so you can collect unemployment. (A lawyer can give more detail)

$1019 a week - the maximum in Washington - is not nothing. But it’s not life changing.

It is enough to survive if you cut back, hopefully long enough to find a new job.

If it is worth that risk is up to you. I won't call you stupid for not taking it. You can also accept it for the moment and start sending out resumes while working. It will take a little longer but there are other jobs.

Well in my state it maxes out at $275 a week…

There are large offices is nearly every major city in the world. On my team, two are in Canada, one is in Singapore, and another in India. All fully remote.

50 miles is a US government defined "commutable distance" (I was just talking about this at work with a human resources person, but unfortunately I can't recall what agency defined it as such).

Maybe OPM: (U.S. Office of Personnel Management)

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/work-sch...

Official Duty Station

An agency may prescribe a mileage radius of not greater than 50 miles to determine whether an employee's travel is within or outside the limits of the employee's official duty station for determining entitlement to overtime pay for travel.

50 miles is a very long way to commute daily!

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