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Comment by silenced_trope | Hacker News Reader

Working from home has become a class marker.

Tech workers who work from home are seen as having more freedom and higher salaries than those that "have to be" in the office.

Additionally I'm watching a Netflix reality show "Married at First Sight" (kinda lame tbh) where often times this comes up as a matter of an individual being at a state of their career where they're more advanced: "I need someone who works from home because I do and I like to travel a lot", "It's important for me to be with someone who is in a place career wise where they can set their own schedule" or just "You work from home? Nice! Me too!"

Or it goes the other way: "You don't work remote? So you have to go in to the office?" with the undertone being one of disappointment, as if the person has less free agency and is in a worse place career wise than someone who doesn't have to go to the office.

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My anecdotal experience regarding pay has been the opposite, at least here in Seattle. The employers who require people to come in a few days a week are all big corps who pay quite well.

I wonder if the relative pay depends on the cost of living. If you're in a small town with limited local opportunities then you can get a higher salary by searching for remote work. But if you're in a high cost of living city then the employers who require you to be there have to pay enough to make it worthwhile.

Having just battled the job market, many offers for remote work take your CoL into account; they aren’t paying Seattle salaries to people who live in MN.

I went from a fully remote role to a hybrid role when I switched. I was successfully able to negotiate upwards because if they are going to require me to commute, then I will need more cash to cover that expense. It was the easiest negotiation I have ever done.

(So now I commute into a mostly empty office to join the same webexes, but if that’s how they want to spend their money, that’s their business. My workday still ends at the same time)

There's also the smaller companies that maybe can't afford to pay what a big corp can, but they can offer WFH or other schedule flexiblity to stay competitive.

Have seen this first hand.

I mean it's absolutely true, I don't have someone who literally controls where I am for half (or more) of my waking hours. How anyone wouldn't read that as increased freedom is beyond me. I can stay over with a friend in another state for as much time as we'd like because I don't have to go to an office. I cook, I clean, I run errands, I play video games, I nap -- inasmuch as I'm meeting my work commitments I decide how best to spend my time. I can even go to the office if it strikes my fancy for a change of scenery.

And the worst part is some executive would read this and say I'm slighting them because I'm not cosplaying as someone busy despite getting more actual work done than when I'm in the office. When I'm WFH and doing async work, work gets my most productive hours whenever that happens. When I'm in the office work gets what they get out of that 9-5.

For a life partner, I looked for markers of maturity.

For some workers to make sure they do their job, they have to be in the office. Some workers can't do their job without using other people's time throughout the day. If you can work from home, there might be other responsibilities that you approach differently than other potential mates.

talk about an incredibly weak signal. seems to me that you’re primarily filtering for personality, not responsibility (which is your prerogative, of course).

for instance “can’t do their job without using other people’s time throughout the day” is a loaded comment that really just indicates how you view working with others.

Thanks, this sounds reasonable. I don't think the reality stars filtering for WFH is very strong either but tried to map it onto myself. Come to think of it: people's ability to develop maturity, responsibility and personality can be undermined by class conditions so maybe it is more of a class marker than I thought.

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