After a few months of the pandemic lockdown this year, my company gave people the option of leaving the local area where our headquarters is located and moving to another part of England. Actually, since we aren’t planning on anyone coming into an office in 2020, we allowed people to move away from the cities where we are located, with a request that they remain in the same country.

A number of companies have followed similar suit, most notably a number of big tech companies. Google has said that workers will be remote until July 2021, while Twitter has allowed workers to do so permanently.  Facebook is allowing workers to leave Silicon Valley, but their salaries may be adjusted. All are disruptive actions, and may forever change the culture for these companies.

Remote work is changing the high tech west coast of the US. This will reshape that area, not just for these companies, but for many others that have had a symbiotic relationship with works. Restaurants, car dealers, rental business, and more will be affected. Certainly some cheer the move, upset with the price inflation and crowds that the booming tech companies brought with them.

Personally I want to go back to an office. I miss seeing people periodically. Some others feel that way, but I’m sure plenty of people like working remotely and would appreciate the freedom to live elsewhere.

Today, I want to ask you where that is. If your company said you could move and live somewhere else, anywhere, where would that be?

Let’s assume that you could keep the same salary. You’d still have to manage meetings and contact with the people work with now, so changing too many time zones would be a challenge. However, dream a bit and think about how you would restructure your life if your company allowed you to do so.

Steve Jones

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