Will The Last Person To Leave Silicon Valley Please Turn Off The Lights?

Remember Silicon Valley? Yeah, we do too.

The bright lights of last century turned into the heady days of the noughties and twenty-tens. Entrepreneurs came in search of their own unicorn story and software engineers moved there for seriously big paychecks (and got them too).

Then COVID happened. The best software developers took their years of experience, hightailed it out of San Fran to greener pastures and started working remote. They took their serious pay with them and started kicking butt with their productivity and work outcomes. Kudos to them.

Recently orders have been sent out by the Silicon Valley ivory tower brigade for workers to return onsite, even in a hybrid format. We guess leaders expect the employee cattle to be easily herded back to the cubicle corrals, CEOs with lassos riding on horseback.

Employees have proven themselves time and again the last couple of years working remotely. So why are the majority of Silicon Valley tech organizations insisting on a hybrid approach for employees who have overachieved? The worst thing we see is, these companies are supposed to be “innovators”. It is a very old school approach to work, so last decade or even last century. 

What would happen to these top techs if a stampede away from the OK Corral occurred? This will definitely happen as top talent leaves businesses for competitors with better remote work policies. Hell, even top Apple exec Ian Goodfellow quit over Apple’s return to work policy.

If you’re still navigating the hell of hybrid work or the expectation your software dev team will return to work onsite full-time in Silicon Valley, here are some truths your 'remaining" employees are too afraid to tell you:

1. Location based pay is downright unfair: The ‘you’re able to work remote or transfer but your pay will change’ offer is great in theory but rude in practice. 
   You’ve been paying your best software devs what they’re worth, and now they’ve moved and are performing better, you are going to devalue their roles because of where they live?
   
2. A shiny Silicon Valley address does not equal success: The idea of ping-pong tables, unlimited candy and a Silicon Valley address on a business card does sound inviting, but sorry no cigar.
   There are many successful software companies that have always operated fully-remote (Zapier and GitLab - hats off to you), not a sneaky Palo Alto address in sight.
   Others such as AirBnB, Atlassian and Yelp are finally getting with the program and moving fully-remote. Some are even closing their gilded Silicon Valley doors.
   
3. Demanding employees return to the office or quit is the best way to lose top talent: Do you really want your best people to leave and join your competitors that do offer fully remote work (Elon Musk are you reading?). This will make for very interesting next quarter product development meetings.
   
4. Fully remote work is better on an organization’s bottom line: We’re all in business to make money. Save money on the office space and candy, and reinvest it back into what really matters; your business and people.
   
5. Fully-remote work gives you access to the best software talent worldwide: You’re not just hamstrung with talent in Northern California. CEOs, Heads of HR and Software should be rubbing their hands in glee. Better talent means better outcomes which means better profits.
   It’s basic Business 101 and you didn’t have to go to Harvard to understand that equation.

Currently the best software developers that used to live in Silicon Valley are: 

• No longer paying through the nose for real estate 
• Enjoying awesome careers without a commute, and
• Are more productive and performing a hell of a lot better.

You really expect them to return on demand, do you? 

You’ll also miss out on access to the best software developers in the world if you don’t have a decent remote work policy. It’s only your businesses that will suffer by being stuck in the twenty-tens or even worse, last century. Read more on why the best developers are no longer in Silicon Valley.

Will the last person to leave Silicon Valley please remember to turn off the lights.