Teleworking in the ATL taking off! (Atlanta, Nashville: neighborhood, buy, income)

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by budgetwise5

I work at one of the large, very old-school corporations that need to see you in the office every day, or they don’t believe you are working. Hours of pointless meetings discussing the same workflows that take months and ten levels of approval to actually get accomplished. Everything that is done can be done with a cell phone and laptop from anywhere.

I used to work in sales in a different industry, and my boss lived two states away. I managed to leave the house every day and be a top producer.

It’s amazing how much of the office-based workplace is demotivating and infantilizing. I’m in my 40’s, and I am made to feel like an intern they don’t trust. The worst part is that it doesn’t matter how many days I sit at my cube for 9-10 hours and take lunch at my desk, there’s always this underlying feeling of guilt or not making a good impression if I have to leave by 4 to take a child to the doctor. I have no idea how so many people live their entire careers like this.

Yeah, I couldn't live like this. I actually started screening jobs during the interview phase by asking questions about vacation and lunch to see how they react. Any red flags and I rule them out.

Life is too short to spend 90% of waking hours responding to and thinking about work! America is behind most other first world countries (excluding Asia) where work-life balance is taken so much more seriously. Much higher vacation minimums, paid leave, mandated lunch breaks, and even government limits on too many working hours in a week. America is far too capitalist to the point that even as overall productivity and efficiency of the average worker has increased thanks to technology, working hours have increased as well in constant chase of higher profit margins. It's sickening.

[arjay57]

Since Millenials are now rising to senior management positions, will they encourage more working from home?

Seems like this could be the beginning of a total revolution.

Why don't we see how this goes before we start slapping more transportation taxes on the little fellow.

[AtlJan]

If working from home becomes more the norm, I could see the trend really hurting Atlanta. If your job allowed you to live anywhere in the world, would you choose Atlanta? My guess is that most would say no, aside from familial ties to the area. I would definitely move to the country myself, were it not for kids settled in school here and aging parents here.

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

If working from home becomes more the norm, I could see the trend really hurting Atlanta. If your job allowed you to live anywhere in the world, would you choose Atlanta? My guess is that most would say no, aside from familial ties to the area. I would definitely move to the country myself, were it not for kids settled in school here and aging parents here.

I don't know that that's definitely the case. I do think people live in Atlanta for reasons other than their job, and their personality would hate living in the country. Even if my job allowed for 100% remote, jobs are too volitle to move just for the job.

I actually moved here for the weather, proximity to ocean and Mountains, and southern hospitality!

[Citykid3785]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Since Millenials are now rising to senior management positions, will they encourage more working from home?

Seems like this could be the beginning of a total revolution.

Why don't we see how this goes before we start slapping more transportation taxes on the little fellow.

I think so. I am an old millennial and I started work in the pre-smartphone era, when working from home was still considered odd and lazy, even though I craved it. Now that I manage a team, I would never think of clock watching.

Also hierarchies are less of a thing now, with the strong job market, the worker bees have much more of a say in what they need to be successful. It used to be that you didn't want **** off your boss. Now it's shifted more to you don't want to **** off your employees and they are reviewing you as much as you are reviewing them

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

If working from home becomes more the norm, I could see the trend really hurting Atlanta. If your job allowed you to live anywhere in the world, would you choose Atlanta? My guess is that most would say no, aside from familial ties to the area. I would definitely move to the country myself, were it not for kids settled in school here and aging parents here.

I still personally think it would help Atlanta more than hurt it. Undoubtedly some will use the freedom to work from where they please but most would likely stay. For starters it's not exactly as easy as cake uprooting your lifestyle to relocate to another city even if you deeply desire to, especially if you have existing family ties, children, ect. For two, ALOT of the negative quality affects of living in Atlanta will be eliminated (traffic - or even if it still existed, you wouldn't be obligated to endure it on a day to day basis) and lastly... economical reasons, let's say that you work remotely making between $65k to $80k a year.. ..any place out west is going to cost more than that to live comfortably, southwest is still doable and you get better infrastructure but at that point you wouldn't really need it because you work remote. You can do Chicago or New York, Atlanta and Chicago are near similar in CoL with Chicago being slightly more expensive but you get much better weather / scenery in Atlanta, although you do get a BIG city life in Chicago. New York...eh..I'd never move there but maybe someone may consider it.

I say it depends on the person, salary, desires.

[NorthAtlanta]

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

I don't know that that's definitely the case. I do think people live in Atlanta for reasons other than their job, and their personality would hate living in the country. Even if my job allowed for 100% remote, jobs are too volitle to move just for the job.

I actually moved here for the weather, proximity to ocean and Mountains, and southern hospitality!

Same for me. I am a metro dweller and wouldn't move to a small town or country at any cost. I like all the amenities of a big city.

Also most of the teleworking jobs are not 100% teleworking, you need to live close by to be able to go into the office on an on-needed basis.. I worked in a teleworking job before and I had to go to the office at least twice a month to participate in meetings..

[Go Blue 99]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

If working from home becomes more the norm, I could see the trend really hurting Atlanta. If your job allowed you to live anywhere in the world, would you choose Atlanta? My guess is that most would say no, aside from familial ties to the area. I would definitely move to the country myself, were it not for kids settled in school here and aging parents here.

I would think it would help metro Atlanta, because you get access to big city amenities at a reasonable cost of living.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

I don't know that that's definitely the case. I do think people live in Atlanta for reasons other than their job, and their personality would hate living in the country. Even if my job allowed for 100% remote, jobs are too volitle to move just for the job.

I actually moved here for the weather, proximity to ocean and Mountains, and southern hospitality!

I won't lie, i'd definitely leave Atlanta if I could work from anywhere. I'd probably move somewhere like Bali or Bangkok. The American dollar stretches so far there that you could live like a king. Was actually in the process of making that move until my last gig decided they didnt need our department anymore.

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by budgetwise5

It’s amazing how much of the office-based workplace is demotivating and infantilizing. I’m in my 40’s, and I am made to feel like an intern they don’t trust. The worst part is that it doesn’t matter how many days I sit at my cube for 9-10 hours and take lunch at my desk, there’s always this underlying feeling of guilt or not making a good impression if I have to leave by 4 to take a child to the doctor. I have no idea how so many people live their entire careers like this.

Originally Posted by markjames68

My last place was like this. On email before 6am and until 10pm but heaven forbid if I wanted to work from home one day. And I was a senior executive at this company.

Originally Posted by Forhall

Yeah, I couldn't live like this. I actually started screening jobs during the interview phase by asking questions about vacation and lunch to see how they react. Any red flags and I rule them out.

Life is too short to spend 90% of waking hours responding to and thinking about work! America is behind most other first world countries (excluding Asia) where work-life balance is taken so much more seriously. Much higher vacation minimums, paid leave, mandated lunch breaks, and even government limits on too many working hours in a week. America is far too capitalist to the point that even as overall productivity and efficiency of the average worker has increased thanks to technology, working hours have increased as well in constant chase of higher profit margins. It's sickening.

Originally Posted by brownhornet

I won't lie, i'd definitely leave Atlanta if I could work from anywhere. I'd probably move somewhere like Bali or Bangkok. The American dollar stretches so far there that you could live like a king. Was actually in the process of making that move until my last gig decided they didnt need our department anymore.

1) I've had the same thoughts. I felt this in retail and in education (the whole demotivating and treating someone like they're a child/stupid). The amount of distrust comes from the fact that this country is addicted to criminalizing people and so they tend to see their fellow citizen as someone who can't be trusted. I've worked abroad and there was PLENTY more trust. People are too paranoid and fearful here. I don't know how people can live their entire careers like that either. I do see people numb themselves and it's scary. Self-employment is definitely on my mind.



2) That's pretty sad, especially for a senior executive. I can only imagine how they treat lower-level employees.



3) That's the culture. You live to work here and if not, you're lazy and anti-American. The US is far behind even developing countries in terms of vacation/sick days. I lived in a developing country and received a little over a month in vacation (was brand new to the company) and a co-worker was like, "That's all you got?!?!? You need to ask for more!" Me coming from the US, it felt like a lot but to her it was unacceptable. I also received about two weeks of sick leave. As for the working hours and profit margin, the history of the US should really be examined. It's always been like this. Our country was built on it...


4) I've very much considered moving abroad, Brownhornet. I'm tired of me and people who look like me getting treated the way we do and for what. Here you live to work and are constantly stressed. I want to be somewhere I can LIVE and not just exist. And again, the people here are paranoid and just weird. When you go abroad you really do notice a huge difference. Should you move, let me know how it works out.