The Verge
The tech workers in Silicon Valley know you want them gone. They knew it when you protested their buses. They knew it when you trashed their scooters. They definitely knew it when you scrawled “die techie scum” on the sidewalk. But guess what? They don’t even want to be here! In fact, they’re already packing their bags.
“I have no attachment to this city,” says a current Google employee who worked in the Mountain View office but has been remote since the pandemic. “It’s a very transient place — it’s a stop gap. If it was more affordable, if there weren’t homelessness issues, would I consider settling down here? Sure. But from my very first weeks in San Francisco I wanted to leave.”
While the pandemic has widened the already yawning gap between tech workers and everyone else, it’s also created an opening for tech companies to go fully remote. In May, Twitter and Square announced employees could work from home forever, and Facebook followed suit shortly after. Now, two out of three techies say they might leave the Bay Area if their companies allow.
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