Vrftjkry

I'm a programmer working for a startup in San Francisco. I go through pretty bad depressive phases during the winter (it is a medical condition).

It's often difficult to get out of bed, let alone actually be productive at work. My depression also seems to be linked to the weather and amount of sunlight (I feel better when I'm exposed to more sunlight).

I have let my employer know about my condition, and have touched on the topic of being able to work remotely from warmer places (ex: it would be summer in New Zealand). However, my boss and HR said that if they let me work remotely, then they would have to let everyone work remotely.

There are already a handful of people working remotely, but they negotiated the deal before joining the company, and are paid much less. I also talked to my Team Lead, and he is totally fine with me working remotely (my work, programming, doesn't require me to be on site or even interact with others too much).

I have considered quitting my job and just doing freelance work, but that would be a last resort. I've also set a deadline - August 1. If I cannot convince my boss by then, I'll quit.

How can I frame the conversation with my boss most effectively so I can work remotely?

I am not sure what would an employer be more likely to approve: work remotely, work part-time or take a Sabbatical each time I go through a depression, nor what would be an acceptable amount of time to ask for...

I'm willing to take a major pay cut. I only use 20% of my salary. Especially if I'm going to be living remotely instead of SF, I won't need most of it. I was thinking of using my salary as a bargaining chip (half my salary in exchange for this privilege). Do I have any other bargaining chips do I have in my favor, or points I can bring up to help my case?

if they let me work remotely, then they would have to let everyone work remotely.

This is basically equivalent of saying "lol no" to your request. You gave your reasons and your employer could not care less. I would not suggest taking a pay cut in return of working remotely, it will not help you and if anything, make you seem desperate.

I would look into jobs with remote options instead of trying to convince the current employer to allow remote. They are highly unlikely to budge.

IMHO, get a doctor`s note, saying that you need / required to be in sunny places during the SF winter months.

This will allow you to ever negotiate remote work during the winter months or go on medical leave for the duration of the winter, negating their reason of "anyone would want it".

DO NOT go with pay reduction from your current salary, as, i imagine, you plan to work same amount of hours remotely as on site

Not sure if medical leave would be paid or not, but you mentioned that your expenses are low.

I think being presented with these choices management will agree to some sort of an arrangement, given its for medical purposes and not "just because its you".

And after working remotely for few months without productivity loss, you can start discussion of making it permanent

Talked to my boss yesterday and framed my conversation as:

I am not sure how to go about this conversation, but as you might know, I have pretty bad depression during the winters. And I learned that the amount of sunlight greatly affects my productivity. I talked to [Team Lead] and [HR person] and we discussed the possibility of working remotely, like [Person 1], [Person 2], [Person 3] and a few others in the company. I realize that they took a substantial pay cut which I am also willing to do. There is a program called WifiTribe (similar to the one [Coworker] went on before he joined), which allows me to work from Latin America which is in the same time zone and has a community of digital nomads to create a work atmosphere and deal with the challenges of working remotely. I've set a deadline for August to pursue this path, as my mental health is very important to me. I have also discussed with [Team Lead] a list of projects that don't require a lot of contact with the rest of the team and can be done alone.

And my boss said that we could give it a shot by working from home during the spring/summer (when I have my hypomanic/productive phases) so that I can show the company that I am productive even when WFH (added bonus: I really shouldn't be around too many people in manic phases as I tend to do/say stupid things). And if all goes well I can work remotely the following winter. So guess that worked out better than I thought :)

I hope this helps anyone in a somewhat similar situation. These conversations aren't very pleasant to have, but I guess if you're direct and firm about your priorities, sometimes they work out.