Do SWEs harm themselves salary wise by not returning to the office?

Question

FANG companies pay the highest salaries and have requested their employees to return onsite when the pandemic is over. Employees are protesting (e.g. employees wrote a letter to Apple execs). If working remotely becomes the norm, these companies will start to hire remotely. This will lead to lower salaries. You can already see that happening in the crypto space where companies are remote first most of the time and salaries are lower in general. So my question is, wouldn't it be smarter for SWEs to commit to come onsite for a couple of days per week to keep competition out? Do you already see it happening in your org?

superflit · Accepted Answer

No because going "on site" means you will lose 1h each way commuting and will have to pay MUCH more to live in a small place.
Then take 10h total commuting time in a week. Times 4 it is 40h hours by month.
Working remote means you get a whole week only for yourself plus lower cost of live.
When you always did commute and think that it was normal you did not realize it.
But now several people are like:
1. Why I should waste all this time commuting?
2. Why I should drink bad coffee and lunch when I have the best spresso and food at my home?
3. Why I should live in a bad neighborhood while I can live in a very good working remote?
After almost 2 years we can see we can work remotely and we are not looking forward for "stand up meetings" or office politics.
Bonus reason: We are fighting climate change :)