I have 2 young kids (5 and 8 years old) and they are heavily dependent on me for school dropoff, post-school activities dropoff, and other activities. I also like cooking for my kids and try different things which takes up time from me on morning and dinner time. My life was going great till RTO was announced. I interviewed to get remote jobs, and got two options. I have to make a decision now, the compensation is all same. I live in Seattle area. Option A - Continue at Amazon 3 Days a week Commute. Commute Time - 1-1:15 hour each side. Cons - Commute is bad. And have to arrange for school pickup and activities on commuting days. Option B - Remote Travel once in a month to HQ (Seattle to NY). Traveling days will be Mon-Thursday. Cons - Away from Family for 4 days in a month. Option C - Remote Once in a year Travel. Need to work in Timezone with overlap of India, Europe and US (West Coast). 4 AM - 1 PM (Pacific Time). Cons - Need to wake up really early and arrange things.
This is a manufactured crisis. None of this was a problem prior to COVID and it won't be afterwards
I am sure this won't be a problem 5-8 years from now. Schools were not as understaffed as now, I didn't had two school going kids with double the work and there was no after school activity. The world is still trying to get back on the convenience of pre-Covid.
Look for another remote job that has better hours. Or hybrid job with shorter commute
Stay at Amazon.
Out of all those options, I’d take the remote with monthly travel.
Option b. Time zones become hell and you can plan nothing with kids and you are not happy with RTO
Agree on Option B, but also: try to negotiate down to once-per-quarter NYC visit instead of once-per-month. You can use the other remote offer as leverage, say the time with kids is important so you are leaning towards accepting the fully remote one (obviously, no need to mention the timezone issues).
How did you live prior to Covid remote ?
His kids were different ages pre covid. The 8 yo would have been 5 and either just started kindergarten or wouldn’t have been in school yet. They may have had a full time nanny or full time daycare, whereas elementary school only goes until 2 or 3pm. I’m also guessing their extracurricular activities were nonexistent at that time.
Isn’t it harder on a parents schedule to raise a 2YO vs a 5YO ?