Ask HN: Why don't SF companies hire remote workers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why don't SF companies hire remote workers?

3 pointsnojvek3 comments

Call me naive but I see tech talent shortage posts all the time. I realize SF also has ridiculous salaries compared to other parts of the world due to housing costs.

I've worked for 2 years remotely for Microsoft from Vancouver. Flights to SF only take an hour from here so meeting face to face once in a while is not a big deal. The timezone matches as well. No relo costs, no visa bullshit.

I'm just wondering whether companies would hire workers like me, or what is stopping them from having such employees?

Are there any studies on whether remote workers are less productive?

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Some companies do. But there are some benefits and relationships you can only get from having regular face-to-face interactions. These benefits aren't adamantly necessary and some companies are willing to trade them off for access to a wider labor pool, but face to face communication is a big enough part of American business culture that it's still the norm.

SF in particular is kind of a monoculture which could also help explain why those companies hire from within SF and the US.

You might be willing to take a flight every week and work from home, but as labor you also could be in the minority. I like having an office to go to every day to get out of my house, and to see people, and I don't like travel. (Unless it's for fun.) Some people are fine with this arrangement, but again if most labor finds it suboptimal that's also why it's not a big part of our culture.

If a company is going to make the extra effort to have remote labor they're likely to hire from overseas to take advantage of lower rates. That might explain why you have less luck finding remote work from Vancouver.

Most SF startups live in an ecosystem where they are completely changing direction multiple times a month, sometimes multiple times a day. Remote workers don't work in such a situation, because the communication costs to bring them up to speed on the new direction dwarf the time they actually get to spend working. Can you imagine how hellish your life would be if you spent 2-3 days (or worse, 2-3 months) deeply concentrating on a problem only to hear that your work will be thrown out and given to an on-site team because market conditions have changed and it's no longer appropriate for your company's current understanding of user needs? Can you imagine how much you'd distrust management after the first couple times of this?

I am researching remote work and posting the companies that hire remote workers here:

http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/telecommute/

My list presently includes four San Francisco companies.

I have a lot more to be added to that list. I'll be doing that soon.

Most of the work consists of finding these companies, so I alternative between researching the companies, then later post them on my site all at once.

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