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uniqs
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Realm
join:2013-05-02
127.0.0.1

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Company Relocation?

A lot of you have worked in IT much longer that I have so perhaps you may have some insight. First and foremost, I am not "concerned", merely just curious as if any of you have been in this situation.

I work for a small technology, a company that has seen rapid growth in this economy, partly because of the services we offer. We offer services that in short, help companies cut costs. The company only offers services to other mid-large size companies so all of the clients are other companies. The company was founded in 2002 and has seen rapid growth the entire time. For a technology company, the company is poorly located. It's located in Florida, walking distance from the coast and the building has been heavily damaged in the past. In addition, the building is their only office and does not have reliable battery/generator power and the building suffers at least one long (hours) power outage a month at which time no clients can call/e-mail/chat in for sales/support/billing. In addition, the company is quickly running out of room in the building. It's a 3 story building and when I started nearly 3 years, the company only had the 2nd floor and a small piece of the 2nd floor. The company now has the entire 1st and 2nd floor, and most of the 3rd floor, and part of another nearby building. Thankfully their services are not affected as the servers are collocated in various data centers. The company is located in a small town which has no IT market whatsoever so the company is paying their employee's very high wages for the area in order to attract people to relocate to work for the company. However, this hasn't been very successful as the company has had the same openings for months as they have been unable to locate programmers, etc.

The company recently opened a remote sales office in the UK which is our first remote office but only has a handfull of people in it and only focus on sales. The company has recently been receiving a lot of press in the media about the growth in the company but some of the most recent press is about how the company has been unable to locate employee's and has been recruiting people nationally.

A bit of history, the company was highly considering relocating to Texas, which is where the primary data center is, but the county decided to cut the company a tax break and the company decided to stay. This was several years ago.

I was recently promoted to a management position at the company and today received a invite to a company meeting regarding new procedures regarding (City) office". This is the first time I had heard of this new office (I have only been in this position for a few days) so I decided to do some searching and I found a job opening posted online in the new city....

So... my question is... how likely is it for the company to completely relocate now or in the near future? Is this a sign of things to come? I think this is a great move for the company as the current location is horrible because of hurricanes, building out of space, no IT job market, etc.

I can't help but wonder if this is some sort of "trial" to see how the company does before completely relocating?

There has been a lot of "signs" in the company lately. For example, changes in the phone system to relocate it remotely instead of internally, etc. All the employee's desktops are being swapped out for laptops and given the ability to work remotely.

Insight?

Drex
Beer...The other white meat.
Premium Member
join:2000-02-24
Not There

Drex

Premium Member

If the company is having difficulty finding talent, then I would think a move to this other city where there is more potential talent would be in their best interest...even if it's just the "headquarters" and still keep the Florida office as a remote office.
As for remote workers, good and bad there. First, it would cut on the cost of having to rent/lease the cost of that office. It can certainly improve people's outlook on their job. I certainly wouldn't mind working from home even if it was only a few days a week. On the bad side you don't see those people on a daily basis, so tasking them with work and getting results can be challenging. Unfortunately I have the privilege of working with such a person and it's not my position to get rid of this excess baggage (we've tried)...but I digress.
If I owned a business and a state was willing to give me grants for training, etc. I think I would certainly be looking to at least establish a presence there.

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

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You don't mention anything about the company's culture or ethics, these are the items that will tell you the real story. Is your company normally forthcoming with the direction they are heading? If yes, then you should expect to be informed if they were planning a wholesale move. If not, then all bets are off.

As for the move from desktops to laptops, that wouldn't strike me as a big deal. I support a 75/25 laptop/desktop mix. That doesn't mean anything other than my users take their computers everywhere.

You obviously are aware of issues with the current location. Therefore, you should understand why they might want to move. The real question is how far? I've never been in a situation like yours, but as I stated above, your company's culture and ethics will give you more insight into their motives.
IamGimli (banned)
join:2004-02-28
Canada

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I would think they're probably likely to keep their current Gulf Breeze, FL offices operational while expanding in Austin, TX.

The grants and incentives they received from Santa Rosa county probably came with engagements not to relocate employees for a certain period of time anyway.

old_tech
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join:2013-03-31
Springfield, IL

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Personally sounds to me that the ownership cares less about the assets, customers and employees. More about how to fund their lifestyle.

If the ownership cared about the company, they would have made sure that there is redundancy for operations, when there are power outages, and also a plan in place to relocate during extreme weather events.

I would do some digging and find out really what is happening under the tables and behind the scenes, in what the owners are really spending the monies on, along with if they are taking care of their responsibilities, such as paying for workman comp, and taxes.
JoelC707
Premium Member
join:2002-07-09
Lanett, AL

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The "signs" may not be what you think they are (they are actually a potentially good thing).

Moving the phone system to a remote location is a good thing given the power outages and lack of phone access you mentioned. Sure, the local phones will be down but the phone system itself will still be up and the callers can at least leave a message.

Migrating to laptops and allowing remote work is just a sign of the times. Given the company is all about cost savings, I'm surprised this hasn't happened earlier. It can also help people work remotely in the event of a natural disaster (everyone pack up and head to our temp site across town or some such).

The rest of your inquiries, are expected. You've been given access to information you previously didn't know about (or so it seems to me). Since you're likely expected to be able to contribute on those plans, if I were your boss I would fill you in on all pertinent details and expect you to clarify anything you are still fuzzy about. This is the first you're hearing of this new site, right? Ask questions about it, gather all the details you can.

Honestly, given everything you've told us about the area the company is in, it seems only fitting they are considering another site. Whether they plan to move everyone to the new site or not is something you need to ask around about. Whether they keep both sites is really going to depend on the financial feasibility of it. Obviously not everyone is going to be able to or even want to relocate and anyone that doesn't is another job position they have to fill. They'll have to decide how many can't/won't move and whether it is financially doable for them to keep the FL site just for them (or for other unknown reasons), or let them go and find replacements.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

1 recommendation

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Can you just ask?