Thursday, June 16, 2005

"Get Him On Board"

What the CEO said to the VP after my presentation. So I think it went well.

In the past, getting and taking a job offer wasn't that big deal: Husband got job offer. If he lived in a different area, he sold the house, pulled the kids from school, moved to the new house, and started the new job. As we enter the 21st century, a variety of things have created huge shifts in this model:

  • The Working Spouse - Women are in the work force like never before, earning boat-loads of money and running their own businesses. If hubby gets a job, it is no small thing to move the wife away from a career - especially in the many cases where she earns more than he does.
  • Insane Housing - I live in SoCal, which isn't cheap, but I bought in six years ago. And I am two miles from the ocean. The new job would be in Silicon Valley and there is no way I could afford a comparable house in NoCal that wasn't less than an hour from work and at least that far from the ocean.
  • Schooling - My daughter may be only four years old, but we are shelling out relatively big bucks to send her to a private pre-school. If we were to move, the chances of getting her into a comparable preschool in a decent timeframe are nil. In upwardly mobile, highly populated areas, waiting lists for preschools, elementary schools, or anything outside of the dismal public school systems are unbelievably long.
  • Technology - This is the plus side of the trend: the internet, cheap long distance, and cheap air travel has made working remotely easier than ever before.
So as I enter negotiations in the next day or so, the question isn't whether if I work remotely, it's how many days I work remotely. And this could be a deal killer since I have no plans to spend 4-5 days a week away from my family (and there are plenty of commuting workers that do just that). So let's hope that the manager is reasonable on the number of days each weeks he expects me to be "local".