Work From Home? Get Ready for Pay Cuts.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: dandandat2

Pay cuts or office call backs; new normal vs old normal. Which will be better for White-collar workers?

I don't understand the pay cut part.... My company is downsizing real estate like crazy. Before I had two offices, both with nice views and now I have nether. At one location we went from 150 cubicles down to a smaller area of about 24. We have shut down two other buildings and maybe 1 or 2 more. Companies are saving massively on reduce office space, so why cut pay in anyway?

This pandemic pushed people to actually try remote and it is very successful more times than not.

The pay cuts are usually if the employee is going to work remotely in a lower cost area. For example, Facebook may pay a software engineer $200k in Bay Area. However, if they say now that person can work in in Portland, OR... they may only pay $175k for that market. So that person is free to move from Bay Area but their pay will be reduced to be commiserate with the area in which they are moving.

This is nothing new though. When I came out of college, the company I worked for paid more in our NYC office than they did in the Atlanta office due to cost of living differences.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan

The company i work for sure isn't doing this. But we are in an industry where folks either have to be on site, or spend their time travelling between sites.

I think the industry is really going to be the main driver.

And if we are being honest, right now is a time of enormous flux. What happens in the next 3 years will determine the next 1000 as far as how our civilization functions.

So my team teaches and they do it mainly in person. We have started to use VDI to teach flight courses where we can, like pilot annuals, so there is that and it is growing. BUT the area where I see a big quality of life improvement is most of my instructors teach about 4 to 7 hours per day. As we get rid of their cube then their house becomes their cube, so when they are done teaching they go home instead of lets say teaching 6 hours then watching the a clock for 3 more hours waiting to go home. That in itself is a big game changer for them.

a reply to: Ranthenae

I had to chuckle... that's exactly the kind of things they complain about. And I get how frustrating that's gotta be if you're coworkers aren't carrying their load. It's been many many years since I've worked outside the home, but even then I would get just as impatient and frustrated with coworkers. So much was just so counter-productive. Do what you gotta do and then you can do what you wanna do. You enjoy your free time more because there's nothing hanging over your head, and the work is easier because you don't have to rush and just end up confounding yourself.

I always thought I was just a little anti-social though. I didn't go to work for socializing. I went to work and make a paycheck, and that's what I did. And I preferred as little attention from the boss as possible... so I made sure I did my job right on time the first time. Life is just easier that way

Good luck keeping your at-home work status... I've got my fingers crossed for ya!

originally posted by: Edumakated

This is nothing new though. When I came out of college, the company I worked for paid more in our NYC office than they did in the Atlanta office due to cost of living differences.

IDK, the pay scales where I work are rather solid, even if you get reduced in position your pay stays the same unless it falls out of the upper range of the new position.

I'm saving over 300 bucks a month on gas and a few 100 on food, plus wear and tear on my car, so I'm saving money too.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
So you are doing things from home now that you use to do in person?

Not really, being in someone's facility gives you exposure to opportunities that they may not be aware of to present via Teams.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

Not really, being in someone's facility gives you exposure to opportunities that they may not be aware of to present via Teams.

Many jobs are best done in person, not much to do about that. If you travel and love it then ya it sucks to do your job not traveling and then also with limitations. I manager people and programs, can do it anywhere, but then I also travelled a lot more in the past...Think I'm well over 70+ countries to date. lol

originally posted by: Xtrozero
Many jobs are best done in person...

Like mine.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: dandandat2

The company i work for sure isn't doing this. But we are in an industry where folks either have to be on site, or spend their time travelling between sites.

I think the industry is really going to be the main driver.

And if we are being honest, right now is a time of enormous flux. What happens in the next 3 years will determine the next 1000 as far as how our civilization functions.

The industry certainly does have an impact on a companies ability to homeshore their employees and the employees ability to be proactive.

My wife works for an HR management and payroll software company. Most of her work is individually driven; she gets a new client that bought the software and she needs to set up their company on the software and then move on to the next. It doesn't matter where she does her work from and she has been doing it from home for 10 years now.

I work for a big tech hardware development and manufacturing company and collaboration is an essential part of our work day. There is some virtual collaboration software out there; but its mostly geared toward virtual collaboration off software development; it doesn't work very well for other design collaborations. And you can't work on hardware development, prototyping and test from home as it is hands-on....

... but that hasn't stopped people from trying. I have many people (both workers and managers) who think they are doing an awesome job from home; thinking they are knocking being remote out of the park. They simply do not see the fires the rest of us back at the office are putting out on their behalf. Their's is not a sustainable dillusion; and I fear many of them are going to be caught off guard when it comes crashing down on them. Some are close friends of mine and I have been personally grappling with whether or not I should tell them.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Some companies are penny pinchers like that.

It's well-known the company my husband works for never cuts pay, so it used to be a valid retirement strategy to temporary take a job in one of the east coast facilities. The salary would be commensurate with the local cost of living, so to someone from our area, that's a substantial pay bump although it's nothing special out east.

You put in your three to four years out east, and then you take a job back in the midwest bringing your east coast salary with you when you did.

Companies would be wise to save their money by sunsetting people and not hiring from their area but from the areas they're wanting to let people work remote from. Then they pay salaries based on cost of living in those areas. That makes more sense than forcing pay cuts.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: CthruU
As is the mundane routine of the commute and office environment..... only loss is the gossip if you thrive on such trivial encounters.

I don't commute to an office, I travel the country, to Europe, South America and occasionally Asia for work. Riding a desk for the past year has sucked balls.

That explains the general disposition

originally posted by: Rob808
That explains the general disposition

My disposition is ****ing pleasant.

a reply to: dandandat2

If i wasn't so entrenched in operations, the core of my job only requires internet, a computer, and a surface to work on. Bonus points for dual monitors, 10 key keyboard, and printer. Throw in a coffee maker and im in heaven.

I suspect that the new company i am in wants to focus on my accounting abilities, and general modelling skills. They are hiring managers to do all the operational stuff I've been doing. My jobs getting a little easier...im not sure ill really work from home though. I need the focus being among a team provides me.

originally posted by: ketsuko

Companies would be wise to save their money by sunsetting people and not hiring from their area but from the areas they're wanting to let people work remote from. Then they pay salaries based on cost of living in those areas. That makes more sense than forcing pay cuts.

Its funny how we all talk about moving to a location that is cheaper. I live near Portland and even those we pay 85k on the low end isn't enough to buy a house on one pay check and a place like Texas you can buy a nice house for 250k. As to wages bigger companies look at industry standards for base pay and then use different pay types for adjustments to the area, so ya living in DC might give you a huge housing adjustment, but then it goes away if you move to Texas, as example.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: Edumakated

This is nothing new though. When I came out of college, the company I worked for paid more in our NYC office than they did in the Atlanta office due to cost of living differences.

IDK, the pay scales where I work are rather solid, even if you get reduced in position your pay stays the same unless it falls out of the upper range of the new position.

I'm saving over 300 bucks a month on gas and a few 100 on food, plus wear and tear on my car, so I'm saving money too.

Definitely saved a ton of money last year without eating out for lunch as much, gas, clothing. Heck, even got a break on day care expense since my youngest day care center was closed a few months.

I think remote work is here to stay for a sizable portion of the work force.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

My disposition is ****ing pleasant.

Well you still have a job, that is one thing. Would have been crappy if your company said, sorry but since you can't travel due to pandemic then we don't need you. For me, I'm looking at retiring in Texas, so to keep working after I move would be a great transition to the place I want to retire too and still work. This has only materialized with paradigm shifts as to how and where we work now.

originally posted by: Edumakated

I think remote work is here to stay for a sizable portion of the work force.

Yes it is... The experiment was pushed on everyone and it worked. The biggest savings is office space. I would not invest into business property anytime soon as companies are down sizing like crazy as office space is about 500 bucks per month in cost and even getting ride of whole buildings in work space.

a reply to: dandandat2

I work from home with GE and they raised my pay recently.
They raised everyone's base pay by half!

I went from 7.25 an hour to 13.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: dandandat2

Bonus points for dual monitors,

A bunch of years ago my company got everyone a second monitor claiming that the second monitor should make everyone 25% more efficient... which they expected to show up in our hourly billing to the projects we were working on. The joke going around to this day is that if we could get a few more monitors on a project the work would practically do itself.

Over the years I procured for myself two really big monitors that took up most of my office length. I took one home back in March 2020 when covid lockdowns hit. Now that I have been back at work full time since last November I've been to lazy to bring the monitor back. I really do think my productivity has suffered working on only one big monitor and my little laptop monitor.

a reply to: dandandat2

Its funny, where I work there was an internal survey that asked if people preferred to work at home over returning to the office, and if so would they prefer to work 3 days instead of 5? I think the stage is being set for less hours and less pay. I am not worried because I am one of those front line workers that didn't get to work from home. Now I am thinking maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Yeah, kind of like going out for dinner. You could have the exact same food delivered to your home and eat it at your dining room table but the experience is significantly different. It's the environment in which the action is played out. It makes a lot of difference.

There is a production loss overall in working at home. Different "squirrels", different attitude. Let's just put ourselves in the position of the bosses or owners. I for one would much rather have employees working in the office rather than at home. Just sayin. I also believe that working at home will bring salary cuts en masse and new hires will pay the price.