We’re going the direction of Facebook. We permanently closed 6 smaller US offices. Those employees will be 100% remote. CEO said that 50% of roles will be eligible for 100% remote. Customer support and sales are the first to return to the office. Engineering will be last and have the most remote options. It turns out people realize engineers work best with more deep-work time where they don’t have interruptions.
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What say you @manch? Perhaps shouldn’t comment since you’re no longer working and don’t know the sentiments of current business management and employees.
@manch Contradicts your view of toilet talk. SWEs are introverts, hardly socialize 
Those that socialize a lot, means…
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yeah maybe SWE, but not really for all other types…
Don’t think any company can force anybody to go back to work physically. It will have to be on a voluntary basis. Imagine the liability associated with workers comp should anyone contract the Corona on their way to work.
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Engineers work best with pants off, shoes off. Not a good environment for coworkers
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Most SWE are of type analytics or amiable (ask types) . Managers are generally of types drivers or expressive (tell types). Analytics like to cut them selves off with world. Work from homer or work from office, expressive will find their way out and reach everyone even when working remote. And the analytics will find their way to keep everyone else out even when working at site.
I suggest asking the 100% remote advocates when they personally will move out of state and phone it in. Too much talk and too little action. If it’s such an awesome deal people should grab it ASAP. It could be that I don’t know enough about the current state of the art. Educate me with action.
We originally decided that video on during zoom meetings was going to be our cultural norm. It’s more personal and better. I’ve noticed a few female coworkers that no longer turn on video.
I found this which is interesting. Based on incomes, it seems Seattle can support even higher home prices. Median income for married couples is higher than SF and SJ. Plus, there’s no state income tax here. That’s not trivial at those median incomes.
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If you’re so impatient, the burden of proof would be ON you 
Still early, I’ll wait for enthusiastic journalists’ articles.
Too intimidating. Knew it when I was using FaceTime.
I have nothing to prove. People predicting huge shift in society should be the ones giving proofs. If the deal is so good, why not grab it now? They seem to be very convinced about it, no? @marcus335 predicts 20% of SV tech firms’ payroll will be 100% remote in 5 years. That’s a pretty fast change, no?
No more media bias? No more poking at journalists’ profile to see what they study and what schools they go to? Now that you are into 26-year-olds’ investment tips, have you bought any Hertz?
Zuckerberg says 50% in 5 or 10 years. I can’t remember the time frame. Unless you think people will go right back to open office with no space between people, how will companies fit everyone in their offices? With distancing, offices can only hold 30% of prior occupancy. Are companies going to build 3x more office space?
First, are you implicitly assuming Covid will be with us forever? What happen after we have a vaccine? Are you predicting a future when kids are all back in school, people vacation in Disney world and may even take cruises again, but somehow office workers are still too afraid to go back to office?
Second, even at 30% capacity now, people can rotate. It takes only 3 days to have everybody back at the office, just not all at the same time. Why would 30% capacity predict 100% remote? Not getting it. Again, it’s early days. That 30% number will only increase over time.
A good thought exercise for all the 100% remote cheerleaders:
How would schools operate? Are you also predicting 100% remote schools? If schools can somehow make it work, with kids and stuff, why can’t office be safe for adults?
I think people now realize how unsanitary sitting that close is. Everything from flu, cold, etc spreads faster. People will want to have more distance. Now we also have data that says open office isn’t more productive.
Rotating is a good theory but that means having zero personal items at your desk. That’s a total pain. It’s also a disaster in cities that charge for monthly parking permits.
For everything else tech companies have done to make employees happier, I don’t see why you think letting people work remotely will be different. It’s also a huge money saver especially for companies that feed employees.