Comments from Arnold Kling
One of Kling’s commenters:
…I just had a close relation sign up with Facebook which insists in the contract on the work being performed physically from either the Bay Area or New York City with no telework options, and thus has to offer tons of money to compensate for the significantly higher cost of living.
What makes more sense. To say that these companies with individuals who are the most likely on earth to adopt and exploit cutting edge technologies are walking past $100 bills on the sidewalk, or that they know from experience that, like it or not, the most productive development environments are ones in which team members work in close, physical proximity with each other, and with managers and subordinates?
My experience:
Managers that rise in an organization are the anal-retents/obsessive compulsives that work 80 hour weeks and give their direct reports the opportunity to do the same. Reports are rewarded for face time and loyalty. None of this is compatible with remote working. As Jack Welch (thrice-married father of four) said “There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”