- the compensation strategy seems in line with what other companies were doing. Compensation adjustments based on local markets are fairly standard for the large tech companies. They seem to be fairly limited though (< 20% of TC) inside the US - Lots of tech companies allow their employees to work remotely until the end of 2021 keeping their current comp. I'm not surprised to see that changing and VMWare may be the first canary (or I'm just not aware about other companies already doing that)

Sure, and it's a good point that I think companies should consider instead of downright rejecting this option.

There are implications though: - What about equity grants? A lot of comp in SV based companies is based on equity (both liquid/illiquid). If you are hiring someone on a pure cash basis vs other people who are not - what kind of dynamic / incentives that will create?

I'm very curios about hearing your experiences working in freelance capacity for a US based company though, it sounds like something I would like to do at some point (as of hiring someone), and would really appreciate the ideas

What about pandemic makes a difference in the way that security, laws, or timezones work?