[blueskin_]

Sounds like a great way to selfdestruct.

"Hey, guess what, you have to move to $middleofnowhere."

"Hey, guess what, I quit."

Exactly how the conversation would go if it ever happened to me. What would happen in such a situation is the good employees would quit because they wouldn't want to compromise their salary, marketability, and ability to take a new job, while the dead weight would go with it because it's still easier than finding a new job if they can build up enough job security in their current one.

Also interesting that someone thinks you should do it... who just happens to own office space in said location.

Cities work because there is the infrastructure and the talent pool. Going to the middle of nowhere might save a pittance on salary, but when people inevitably quit, good luck replacing them without spending even more on moving other people there.

[lewaldman]

Hey Mate, Think Remote! :)

The only place where I worked on the last 8 years that I couldn't work remotely is not the kind of place that I would work anymore.

For me these days, if a company doesn't have some remote policy in place (I mean... not full remote, nor once per week, but the option to, sporadically, work from home on a sick day or to be able to do some coding/admin stuff on the road) it automatically flares a red flag as a place that would not be a magical place where I could do the best that I can.

If the place doesn't have the remote-some-times flexibility it's probably a place with bad management practices and an out-dated culture.

Same thing regarding talent pool... Why on earth do you need to smell the emanating creative fumes of your employees every day from across the hall? :P

[blueskin_]

Remote is nice when it works, but it doesn't always or for every company. Where I work right now, for example, people work remotely but still have required days in the office for meetings etc., while I couldn't work remotely as too much of what I do is physical work with networks and servers that wouldn't be possible remotely - those are the people that will be hit with "you have to move" and so quit, especially since chances are that in the middle of nowhere, there will be few to no career opportunities for them.

[pnathan]

I've worked in a remote-ish location in the middle of farms. Part of my work there involved some recruiting for my team. Let me tell you, moving to a place where the only career opportunity was the company talking to the candidate was basically a deal breaker. I left them because, broadly, it would have broken my career too.

" the good employees would quit because they wouldn't want to compromise their salary, marketability, and ability to take a new job, "

The good candidates wouldn't touch us with a 10ft pole, the ambitious graduates were getting out of the farmland and over to the cities. So we generally had a great intern pool (lots of sharp people in financially strapped situations not wanting to move) and second to third rate hires. Not bad hires, but... not close to best in class. So while I can perfectly understand bootstrapping or running a (very) small business in the boondocks (many many reasons to do so), I can not advise locating an office there. Nor can I advise any enterprising and ambitious student to move to the boondocks for a job. Networking matters.

[personZ]

Exactly how the conversation would go if it ever happened to me.

Look at the entire business model of Silicon Valley -- the vast majority of hires are fresh graduates. Party because of ageism, but also because fresh graduates are the ones who are willing to uproot their lives and move to some place with a not particularly compelling quality of life, with enormous costs of living, just to get a job. The reality is that the Valley isn't necessarily drawing the best of the best from across the continent: They're drawing the ones who are willing to move, which overwhelmingly means people just starting their adult lives.

So if someone wants to hire new graduates, being in a more remote location might be completely tenable, if not optimal, to their strategy. It is a filter.

And then there are remote workers. I live on a sprawling property in the rural extents of the exurbs of Toronto. If I worked a traditional SD job it would be a terrible commute, but I do the vast majority of my work completely remotely, with redundant high speed connections and some fat computing hardware. There is absolutely nothing that being in the center of it offers me. On the flip side I often have peers and clients to my property for BBQs and a good time.

[banino]

It clearly can't work for all startups. It has to be something that is rooted in the company's culture. The guys at Maptia received a crazy amount of applications when people heard they were based in a Moroccan surf town. There are lots of people that are interested in this. Also, remember, it can also be only for a few weeks.