[PeterisP]

Hire telecommuters outside of SF.

For example, I personally could get a drastic increase in income by moving to USA/SF, but I won't consider physically moving since it would be a great disruption to my wife and babies and I can afford not to move, as developers are wanted everywhere (though not so piranha-style). And there are many more developers like me. Long-range telecommuting is an option, and it's easier to be competitive financially since practically everywhere has lower cost of living than SF, I believe. (How much would a home for a full family within cycling distance of the office cost?)

[pnathan]

Some/most companies have a real problem with the concept of telecommuting/remote working. It's really quite astounding to me: the internet is in more places than ever before, video conferencing, text conferencing, etc, are at all-time highs, yet for some reason companies simply think remote work is unacceptable.

Blows me away.

[yesimahuman]

I've worked remotely with a strong distributed team. It worked quite well, and I formed relationships on par with the year I worked in-person at another company.

That being said, I'm not very interested in it for my company since it just seems less fun to not be able to hang out with your employees in person. And fun is the reason I do this. I'm still on the fence about it though.

[JoeAltmaier]

SO your company must have no trouble finding local people? Because fun is your driving hiring metric?

[yesimahuman]

You are too quick to jump on minor details.

[rhizome]

So if "fun" is the reason you do it, "fun" must also be the reason your employees do? Do you put this in your job ads as a required skill, doing it for fun, or is it perhaps something you don't say out loud?

[yesimahuman]

Part of having "fun" is also feeling secure and safe in your job. At any rate, I know many people who find it more fulfilling to engage with their team locally, and I'm one of them, and I don't see what's wrong with that (especially since it is my company after all and I'm pretty sure I'm not breaking any laws by stating that).

[dirkdk]

Well yes, but for startups that doesn't work. Every day you need to look at the results of your product, talk with your team and adjust course. Having remote workers really kills your ability to do that.

[lifeisstillgood]

Maybe, but not really. Two hours of google hangouts, screen -x, git and CI servers will do you for every conversation you can imagine apart from, let's grab a beer

[JoeAltmaier]

You have clearly not tried any number of tele-worker suites out there. I use/develop Teamspace and its absolutely capable of all of that.

[bmelton]

Completely agreed. I work in Mountain View, CA, but live on the other coast in Maryland. At pycon, I had a couple of companies trying to poach me (despite being a relative nobody), all paying good money™ to get me, but none of them were offering telecommute.

Aside from the fact that I love my company, and my job, the raise offers are always worth considering, but knowing that I'd have to move or go into the office every day made the offers much less appealing.

[sendob]

I agree! Geography is very valuable to some individuals; Especially with the tools available at this point, it seems strange to value being physically co-located for work.