Tickers mentioned: AAPL, AMZN, FB, GOOG, MSFT, VMW, TWTR

Deep-pocketed companies such as Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft have a competitive advantage in the Talent War – especially during the Work-From-Home era. On that front, VMWare and Twitter just shot themselves in the foot.

VMWare and Twitter said they will adjust compensation downward for remote workers who wish to leave the Bay Area for a location with a lower cost of living. This comes several months after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said all employees may work from home in perpetuity.

If you game this out, the Technology giants mentioned in our header can certainly afford to pay Bay Area compensation to Bay Area employees who decide to move out of the Bay Area. Those giants have the capital to be flexible and creative in the war for talent. Alternatively, VMWare and Twitter have decided to take optionality away from employees. VMW and TWTR are hurting their ability to compete for talent. VMWare, Twitter and other tier II and tier III Technology firms need to embrace creativity when competing for talent, not be less creative and less flexible than the large platform companies. This is a huge strategic blunder on VMW and TWTR’s part. We would not be surprised if VMWare and Twitter eventually change their approach.

Heck, companies such as Automattic (we publish TEK2day on Automattic’s technology stack), were built from the ground up leveraging a 100% remote work force.

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