So, I made a misstep. I applied, interviewed, and now received an offer for a very good position with very good pay, team, and benefits. During the interview process, I told them I would be comfortable relocating. The offer is now here, and I'm not ready to relocate. The office is about 1.5 hours from me, one way, with the chance for that commute to be much worse on bad traffic days.
This would be a leadership role, and I would have a team working for me in office, so while I would be traveling a lot, I would need to be in the office otherwise.
Has anyone successfully negotiated a new gig to be fully remote?
Why aren’t you ready to relocate? If your circumstances have changed then fair enough. If not you were pretty dishonest. Even so if you can play it that your circumstances changed and you can make it work but need to be remote partially that could work.
Yeah, that is a pretty big screw-up on your end. You either need to backtrack and turn down the offer (make up some excuse... i.e. wife and kids vetoed moving to wherever) or call a moving company and get ready to go. Not sure how you're going to "lead" a team of folks from an hour and a half away, and I think you'll look like a clown trying to negotiate that. You can probably ask for a little more time to make the move, but you have to make it eventually.
Unless there's a legit and unexpected reason you can't relocate rather than don't want to relocate, I doubt they'd facilitate you unless you're going to be a rainmaker and the team can function without its head in the office. How soon can you relocate? I think this will be a key part of their decision. If you're looking for full remote permanently, my guess is they'll rescind the offer since it sounds like a significant retrade by you now that you have the offer.
yes i have and my VP is fully remote. But thats not what you negotiated you lied and said you would be fine in person, i mean you might be able to pull if off. But if i was that company I would be pissed and wonder if you change your mind so quickly on a large decision like that then what else will you do it on.
Getting called dishonest or a liar a lot, and I guess it’s worth pointing out that I didn’t knowingly mislead them, and that’s part of the issue. It sounds like a retrade, but it’s honestly a mistake. Intention is the difference.
Initially, conceptually, it made sense, but it wouldn’t be setting me up for success in the near term, for reasons that I won’t go into right now.
Do you have any insight into your VPs arrangement? How has he been working with you? Frequent zoom check ins, etc?
You will need a well thought out script to explain this to them and know that they will likely have the same response we did if this is not explained correctly and i think this will be tuff to do but of course its possible to pull off.
So when he first hired me we went into the office the bank owns nearby and he flew in for a week and trained me and the other new hire working directly with us for 8 hours a day at min to get us up to speed and comfortable with him. Then he visited once every other month for a few days to a week and now its only once every 6 months. This keeps us feeling connected.
He will talk extensively over the phone and share his screen to go over stuff when needed, since he is so busy these meetings are usually scheduled at least a day in advance but can often be 1-3 hours in length. I will say though these dont happen super often. Most our interactions are through email and he will send very detailed answers. Overall it has worked great because the first week we got the complicated stuff out of the way and a lot of the stuff thats not so complicated like turning comments does not need in person interaction. I will say you need to probably put more focus on who you hire than usual when you go down this route as you cannot afford to micromanage if you do this you need someone very driven over everything else who will attempt to learn on there own. Let me know if you have anymore question.
Assuming you’ll only take the job if it’s remote. You have nothing to loose if you ask and they say no. Than next step you just turn them down. So overall, might as well ask. Unless that is they may pull the offer if you plan on accepting and moving.
Hybrid seems like a reasonable counter. So that’s likely what I will propose.
Any practical insight from a management perspective? How do manage/be managed remotely?
If you don't know how to manage remotely you have no argument at all.
Candidly, if their intention was for you to be in the office, I'd assume that their ethos and culture values being in person and having direct contact. I also assume this isn't a national firm burdened by regulation/liability issues to where work-from-home/hybrid setting is mandated.
Even if they offered a hybrid work setting, I don't think you'll effectively receive the advancement opportunities you would want. If anything, I can imagine there being quite a bit of friction between you and other executives. Some of the commentary may even seep to your juniors, who are likely to be in the office, which won't help your relationship with them. If I were you, I would turn down the offer or make the necessary arrangements to be there in person. No malice; all honesty.
I haven't heard of renegotiating to be remote after accepting an offer. To me its seems to be one of the first things that you tend to know early on in the interview process. What's holding you back from relocating? I'm assuming its a pretty strong reason for you to think about this after accepting the offer. You can certainly bring it up with them but it really has to be a good and compelling reason for them to be fine with it. Otherwise, if you are dead set on not relocating just be prepared to let go of the offer.
Could say you have another offer in hand closer to home with better pay. Then ask if they can match it or at least offer a hybrid option to balance the two and then it would be an easy choice for you.
Otherwise, if the position is great try starting out commuting and after a couple months ask if you can “be in the field more / remote a day or two a week” and see how it goes. Might be flexible.
There's a guy in my office, senior role ~15years experience, who got a job with us about a year ago in Oct 2020. He was supposed to move here June 2021 (when the office was supposedly open back up). We're now not officially back but everyone is pretty much back to normal. The dude is still nowhere close to moving to our city (he's 5 hours away). Apparently, he's got "family" issues to deal with - honestly, I'm slightly pissed, like dude we all have family issues, only I don't get to get paid HCOL salary and live in a LCOL (by 30% cheaper) area.
Anyways, vent over. You can tell them you're intending on moving and that you're will to commute few days a week (1.5 hour/each way there's no excuse to not be in the office at least once/twice a week), buy your time until the world is back to normal. If you try to negotiate permanent work from home at this time, you'll look ridiculous. May be WFH will be the norm, but with omicron weakening and the world seems like going back to normal (fingers crossed), I doubt it.
If remote is what you want, don't settle! I made the mistake of taking a new job in the office after being remote and I am now paying the price - I hate it. I don't necessarily agree that you screwed up.... Sometimes the reality of a situation does not hit you until you are confronted with a lifechanging decision. Keep on fighting the good fight to normalize permanent remote work!
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