What are you guys paying for gas?

You office guys have it rough. I'd give a left and a right for a qualified carpenter or two that could work on muti-million dollar custom homes. mtmuley
Pfft say no more. I'm on my way. I didn't know you were moving.

Is fuel and meals covered? Kind of a real bitch on the cc right now.

 
This is an interesting discussion.

Three things that concern me about the work-from-home revolution are A) downward salary pressure once market conditions change in favor of employers, B) what if “home” isn’t in the US? and C) if these jobs can be accomplished in just a few hours a day, companies may realize they have too many employees doing too little.
 
This an interesting discussion. Three things that concern me about the work-from-home revolution are A) downward salary pressure once market conditions change in favor of employers and B) what if “home” isn’t in the US? and C) if these jobs can be accomplished in just a few hours a day, companies may realize they have too many employees doing too little.
I've wondered the same.
 
Luckily we are due to get a stipend to ease the hurt. $500 for gas, if you qualify. Married couples who file jointly get $1000.
2 $250 payments in a couple months, with maybe another later in the year.
That's what?
that would be called an intentional policy decision to create and promulgate inflation.
 
See the variable there was all environments were the same so pay and benefits were the only variables.

Not the case anymore, I think a lot of folks are willing to take a huge pay cut for flexibility.
I can really relate to this. I’m in the process of leaving a job I’ve done for a long time and looking for something else. Flexibility is HUGE for me. 8 hrs per day, 5 days per week, 50 weeks a year, in an office feels like a really comfy prison. I will accept less money for a job that has more flexibility in terms of hours, vacation time and location.
 
This is an interesting discussion.

Three things that concern me about the work-from-home revolution are A) downward salary pressure once market conditions change in favor of employers, B) what if “home” isn’t in the US? and C) if these jobs can be accomplished in just a few hours a day, companies may realize they have too many employees doing too little.
Not to mention AI replacing a large number of computer jockey jobs in the near future. No @nick87 , this AI doesn't stand for artificial insemination. 🙂
 
Not to my 82 men they want as much overtime as they can get all the time. I guess we’re a different breed.
No, no different just operating with different variables. I'm sure they would make the exact same decision if they were salary.

If you're on salary and commuting, you are essentially stranding two hours of your day, commuting isn't working but it certainly isn't your time either. So if your working 40hrs a week and then commuting an hour each way it drops your per hour earnings significantly. You can take a pay cut, work from home and make the same per hour.

If you factor in childcare, ($15 per hour) just during your commute time so 2 hrs per day extra, you can take almost a ~30% pay cut and still make the same amount per hour. You can take a 10% pay cut and gross the exact same amount. Further, because you have reduced your income you pay less tax. So that working remote and reduction of commute + childcare is like a tax free bonus.

Now if your working per hour the equation changes, the commute still reduces your pay by hour, but say you work 4 hours of OT a day, that actually offsets your loss in commute plus your gross increases significantly.

People aren't math-ing this out, but this is basically how they are making their decisions.

I would absolutely work a bunch of OT if I was hourly, and I would absolutely take a pay hit to eliminate my commute.

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This is an interesting discussion.

Three things that concern me about the work-from-home revolution are A) downward salary pressure once market conditions change in favor of employers, B) what if “home” isn’t in the US? and C) if these jobs can be accomplished in just a few hours a day, companies may realize they have too many employees doing too little.
A) So like the last 80 years...

B) Increasingly common though not without issues, insurance, taxes, benefits are all complicating factors. It's ridiculously complicated, but you either need to leave the country completely and be 1099 to avoid all taxes but then you don't get insurance, or you designate a home state and pay federal and state taxes like normal and it's more like you are on an extended vacation. Some companies have shifting pay structures based on location. So if you work in Mexico for more than 3 months they reduce your salary.

C) Curious to see how this one plays out, a lot of those article like @PrairieHunter posted were based on the pandemic, where lots of companies could conduct business as normal but didn't want to fire folks and then have to scale up once things rebounded. So in the case of OG company, Conoco reduced the number of rigs they had running in 2020 dramatically, but they probably didn't want to fire a lot of their experienced geos/engineers/ etc, because it would take forever to build back up their staffs. Those folks probably didn't work all that much for the year, but now they are slammed with work.

I would be curious to read that same paper, looking at 2022-2024 with companies with remote staffs and see if they see the same trends.
 
It's ridiculously complicated, but you either need to leave the country completely and be 1099 to avoid all taxes but then you don't get insurance, or you designate a home state and pay federal and state taxes like normal

I meant the jobs leave the country, meaning they are going to be filled by people that are not Americans (India, for example). Our just eliminated/outsourced.

Inflation=recession=rising unemployment. Usually how things work anyway. The game is about to change, and those who took part in “the Great Resigation” are going to be sadder but wiser imo.
 
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So like the last 80 years...

I have a pretty good feeling I understand the philosophy behind the way you answered this- if I do understand where you’re coming from, I agree.

But it can and likely will get worse. An example would be Google- why would they pay the same wage to a guy living in Montana, Wisconsin or Indiana as they were paying someone living in California? The answer is/was(?) “because they have to in order to retain employees.”

This is true, until it’s not.
 
I meant the jobs leave the country, meaning they are going to be filled by people that are not Americans (India, for example).
That's been going on for decades... but since we continue to neglect education that trend will escalate.
But it can and likely will get worse. An example would be Google- why would they pay the same wage to a guy living in Montana, Wisconsin or Indiana as they were paying someone living in California? The answer is/was(?) “because they have to in order to retain employees.”

This is true, until it’s not.
I know a guy that does crisis management for huge public tech companies, like he's the guy twitter calls when there is actively someone in their system. He makes 7 figures and lives in an adventure van.

Why because he's "the guy", companies will pay what talent demands.
 
That is awesome for that guy, how cool of a lifestyle that would be!

I am admittedly a late adopter of the new way of thinking of employment, realizing I may look back and regret that I was so far behind the curve. Who knows, hope I’m wrong for everyone’s sake.
 
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