HACKER Q&A
📣 sdevonoes

Doubious Remote Work Policy?


I'm in the last stage of an interview and they have handed me over an offer later where it states that I can work remotely but on certain occasions I will have to travel to the office. These occasions are: important company-wide announcements, team events, roadmap events. They cannot predict how often these events will happen, but they say it could be roughly once per quarter.

I have asked them many times about their remote work policy and they honestly say that they are not 100% sure how it will turn out in the future. Right now they are 100% remote, but they cannot assure me it will stay as such in the future. It may be that for people who live in a city where they have offices, then an hybrid model may be applied (I don't live in a city where they have an office).

I understand that they cannot guarantee me anything regarding the future if they actually don't know (many companies are still figuring this whole WFH situation out).

My gut feelings tell me: don't accept if 100% remote is not guaranteed... but somehow I think I'm being too pessimistic (the people I have interviewed with are normal and nice, no red flags. Also the project looks interesting). Any opinions?

  👤 cabraca Accepted Answer ✓
Simply make them pay for it. Tell them you come in if they pay for travel expenses, at least two nights in a hotel and your travel time counts as overtime or something like that. Push the boundary a little and see how they react. This way both parties have to invest and they will make sure to not call you into the office if it is avoidable.
👤 likpok
I don't think you can reasonably expect 100% remote if "travel to the main office occasionally" is "not 100% remote".

Pre-pandemic I worked with people who were both full-time remote (lived in another state) and who worked in an office in another city. Everyone came to visit the main and branch offices every so often, especially if they were involved with more "leadership" roles (i.e. tech lead, staff engineer, etc).

I don't think anybody knows what the future is going to look like. This even shows up in the recent past: reddit fired all their remote workers (pre-pandemic) and then went mostly-remote a few years later (pandemic). Offices are reopening and some people come in a lot but other people don't come in at all.

I also knew someone who worked remotely for years in video games until the company told him to come in or quit. He quit and now works FAMG making millions.

Some practical notes: what's the risk if the company decides to ask that you come in? Do you need a savings buffer while you look for a job? Do you have a visa that requires you be employed?

👤 thesuitonym
I think you're being too pessimistic. They're probably trying to underpromise so they can overdeliver. If they tell you these in-office events are once per year, then they need to do it twice, you might get upset.

Instead of asking them how frequently these things will happen, maybe you should ask how frequently they've happened in the past six months. Even better if you can ask someone not involved in your hiring process.

👤 epc
Will they cover travel to the office as a business trip (reimburse airfare/train/etc + hotel)? If yes, then it’s remote, if no, then it’s only temporarily remote. Ask them to put the policy in writing as part of an amended offer letter.
👤 justusthane
Nothing is ever guaranteed, policies can change at any time. They could tell you that it will be 100% remote forever, and they could still change the policy in a year.

It sounds like they're just being honest.

👤 readonthegoapp
If you are risk averse -- that is, you want to remain risk averse -- you cannot do it

If you want to fight the good fight and are open to walking away from the job at any moment in the future, then take it