Facebook will now let some employees work from anywhere

[Ashtynn Baltimore]

Facebook Work From Anywhere
I’m sure a lot of you have hear about this but if not, I’m sharing! Thought this would be a great discussion topic. Facebook is allowing a number of new hires and current employees to work from anywhere going forward (more permanently). See link to Reuter’s video  on first line of this post. But where do we think these techies might move to? Seems like a great opportunity for secondary markets. 

[Aaron Taylor]

Originally posted by @Amit M.:

@Brian Singh

I think the recent work from home hysteria is a fallacy. Conceptually, working from home has NOTHING to due with covid 19. If it’s so awesome, why wasn’t it adapted en mass years ago? Yahoo a couple years back even rolled back WFH. It’s a trend that will have some effect yes, but it’s being way over hyped. For two main reasons: 1- I’m not sure it will really provide long term benefits to the tech firms jumping on the bandwagon now 2- I’m not sure how many employees will ultimately like it, after the forced-Covid-novelty wears off. i.e. it’s hard to get all those cool tech co benefits like free gourmet food, gyms, awesome office spaces, etc., etc. piped over a zoom meeting.

As for WFH effect on the Bay Area, keep in mind that when people work from home, their direct environment becomes MORE, not less important. Would you rather be home based in the Bay Area with tons of things to do nearby, good weather, lots of nature, etc. or someplace with little culture, extreme temperatures, bland immediate environment, etc., etc. There is a reason many people, who can afford to do so, aspire to live in CA and especially the Bay Area. Working from home isn’t going to radically change those aspirations.

You're right that it has nothing to do with Covid-19.  However, the biggest problem is that there was this HUGE management mindset that "work from home doesn't work" and "how can I trust my remote employees" and "we're going to work from the office because that's the way my dad did it, and his dad before him, and his dad before him...".  That mindset suddenly has huge holes in it because things just got done without a hitch.  Frankly I think our productivity at my work has gone up even more (although my work is one that will not be allowing remote work in future).

I'm in tech, and frankly those perks you see in the movies are overblown.  Sure, you have ping pong and foosball tables, cafeteria, etc but once you get a little older and have kids family just trumps all of that into the ground.  Basically, it's great for people for their first 5 years out of college, but as you settle down then space, schools, other family, etc become more important.

Until this year, I actually worked remotely more in 2005 and 2006 than I had in the past 13 years.  The technology has been there forever, the trust factor wasn't though.  Sometimes things don't happen either unless there's a herd moving towards it either, all these corporations just copy each other for the most part with the same 401k, medical, vacation, etc.  So if the big tech companies make this standard, it will probably flow to all the rest just to compete for college students.  I could actually see this being a longer term plus for towns that have major colleges, as instead of having to move to their job (the traditional thing that happens after college where everyone goes their separate ways) a lot of them can just stay put if they want.  I can tell you for certain that I wouldn't have moved had I been given the option after college.