Who is back in the office? (Boston, Cambridge: prices, manufacturing, pool)

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Not how it works though, generally. People hop from company to company, and many are not eager to relocate these days. One might live in Chelmsford and their spouse already works in Nashua. Their whole family is here, that tech worker isn't just going to up and move to Salt Lake City. But they would happily work out of Nashua instead of making the nightmare drive to Waltham.

Those are people that employers don't want though. They are too old.

[mikeugh]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Not how it works though, generally. People hop from company to company, and many are not eager to relocate these days. One might live in Chelmsford and their spouse already works in Nashua. Their whole family is here, that tech worker isn't just going to up and move to Salt Lake City. But they would happily work out of Nashua instead of making the nightmare drive to Waltham.

If this is how it actually works, and there were enough of these people to work for less in Nashua, the companies would locate there. If they're not, then that is not how it actually works. They are locating in SLC though. Booming city.

[mdovell]

Moving depends. If a job can be done remotely that's one thing but if not it can be tiresome. I've heard bas stories of accounts of GM workers that literally have moved several time for factory jobs hundreds of miles away.

Many times you cannot make more at a job until you go to another. You can't be afraid of leaving. I know some that are trapped due to proprietary systems and gold plated health plans. The company has their own programming language but it doesn't exactly have a value outside of it and they pay their people pretty bad but their kids will have free dental care for decades etc.

At that same point I have seen people overqualified for jobs that would give them better opportunities later on.

[yesmaybe]

I should say that there are a few companies near the NH border... but they are mainly companies that settled a long time ago... and they only went there because of the No Income Tax.

[msRB311]

So ok no one is really open to the idea of companies being anywhere but Boston. So basically anyone who does decide to work in Boston should find a place to live in Boston or within 10 miles (they'll need a high salary obviously) Or if they choose to live outside Boston they'll have a disgraceful commute to get to their Boston office because no one here thinks people should work from home either lol.

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by msRB311

(they'll need a high salary obviously)

Not necessarily if you have multiple roommates.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Not necessarily if you have multiple roommates.

Oh come on. People don't want that either after a while. But in all honesty those are kind of the options - get roomates whether it's a friend or someone to be in a relationship with. I wonder how many people feel trapped in a bad living situation these days because they can't afford to live alone.

[charolastra00]

As far as anyone here has let on, no one on this forum is making decisions for a company's relocation.

The challenge with settled companies in Boston is that people fan out all over metro west and even down to Providence. I have coworkers who take the train from Providence or Attleboro 3 days a week - if we moved HQ to Nashua then not only would those people have to move (and possibly uproot their spouse's career) but also all the younger employees who live with roommates in the city would have to buy cars and move. The same is true if we moved to Providence or Worcester - a good chunk of the company has made their life somewhere based on commuting into Boston.

Do I wish there were more opportunities for satellite offices in other cities or more remote work? Absolutely. And I certainly wish new or expanding companies would consider Providence, Worcester, Lowell, Haverhill, Nashua, Springfield, etc. rather than immediately plopping down in Cambridge or Boston. While moving an existing company would likely ease future employees, it's a great way of losing a ton of your existing talent. Even if you're not enjoying a sub 5% interest rate mortgage, just moving to a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment can easily cost $10-15,000 out of pocket with first, last, security, broker's fee and moving expesnes.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Oh come on. People don't want that either after a while. But in all honesty those are kind of the options - get roomates whether it's a friend or someone to be in a relationship with. I wonder how many people feel trapped in a bad living situation these days because they can't afford to live alone.

Or want to get divorced but don't because they FOMO and overbid by $200K on a mcmansion that they couldn't afford alone.

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by msRB311

So ok no one is really open to the idea of companies being anywhere but Boston. So basically anyone who does decide to work in Boston should find a place to live in Boston or within 10 miles (they'll need a high salary obviously) Or if they choose to live outside Boston they'll have a disgraceful commute to get to their Boston office because no one here thinks people should work from home either lol.

With WFH, the likelihood of a company moving out of Boston is going to go down, especially as downtown office real estate owners start to get crushed by vacancies as leases expire and offer very attractive terms.

Our office in downtown is moving across the street, going to be a smaller footprint, newer/better space, better building amenities, and almost four years of free rent on a 10-year contract.

We do have satellite offices north and south of Boston, but rarely does anybody go to them. I see the company shutting those down or downsizing once the leases expire.