Posted on 03/08/2008 2:43:01 PM PST by RonBond
I have been approached by my company to be relocated. In the company, it is considered detrimental for your career to turn down a job transfer. The relocation is to an expensive place and a "blue state". The cost of housing is expensive. I am looking at relocation money. One of the conditions to receive relocation is I have to sell my current house. With a bad real estate market, not a good time to sell. Other parts of the relocation is they give money to move my personal items but it is not enough for packers to do it. It is just enough for me to rent a truck and pack it myself. On the fees to sell the house, it comes out of my pocket as well.
To me this is a pretty rotten deal. I am not management but people in management get much better deals.
Question for the "audience" is what kind of bad deals have you had on job transfers in your experience ? Other experiences ?
You give no relevant info.
if the deal makes sense, do it. if not, don’t.
Ron,
Why don’t you update your resume and start looking? If they wish to relocate you, you must be valuable. The job market is tight and it is not easy to replace people. Even with the latest round of layoffs in some sectors. The unemployment rate is 4.5 which doesn’t leave a lot of room for employers to maneuver. There also is no harm in agreeing to it and then backing out. Companies change their minds all the time when certain arrangements are no longer beneficial to them you as an individual should be no different. It is not personal it is about your self interest and in the end it is your life and family that should take priority over the loyalty to an impersonal corporation.
That said maybe you can work out some kind of temporary travel arrangement in the interim. What kind of work do you do?
I am trying to be discrete....
You’ll hate it here and the weather inhales vigorously.
That is apparent. If you want opinions, you have to give them at least basic facts. What city to where for instance.
You can recoup, as tax deductions, any expenses you incur that are involved in the move that your company does not cover. Keep a detailed record and receipts of everything!
Washington DC Area (DC/MD/VA).....
I guess I’ll start with the obligatory “You signed up today to post this?”
Now that’s over with, tell them to pound sand. Sounds like a crappy company to work for anyway.
Find a new job.
If they don’t come across with what it takes to keep your lifestyle even then this is not a good deal and they are playing you for a sucker.
I moved away from MD and a job in DC in ‘92. Best move of my life, the place is a cesspool.
I’d flip burgers before going back there. Heck, I’d shovel manure before I’d go back there.
I live bit north of the balt/metro area. Inside the 695 beltway. Where are you moving to?
I was in management though.
This may no longer be true, but taxes killed me. On my income statement from the company, everything they paid for was added to my "wages, tips and other compensation" line for the IRS. The mover, and some other travel expenses that I went to the city to plot where to live, and visit again with my wife to see if she'd like things. And some real estate stuff. It's all a blur now.
But the imputed income was maybe $10,000 all added up, and like I said, this was over 20 years ago. I ended up owing income tax on all of that "income", and I probably paid an additional tax bill of between 2,000 - 3,000 dollars that I would NOT owed, had I just stayed put. And I never really saw a nickel of pay to help out with Uncle Sam's eager hand.
And I didn't move to a state that had a state income tax. That would be yet another way for your move to cost you some out of pocket tax dollars.
As far as sellling your house, that just seems crazy. I have a golf buddy that's about 55 years old. He works for a major oil company, and he's been transferred about a dozen times in his career. Every time they move him, he buys a house at his new location, and rents out the house from the city he just left.
He now has a gross monthly rental income of about $20,000, and he could probably liquidate all the homes he's accumulated through the years for 2 or 3 million dollars, even in today's housing market. That will be a nice nest egg when he finally hangs it up.
The former Mr. OTTB and I were transferred several times, both for new jobs and for in-company moves, not always management. Usually we were to try to sell our house ourselves, and the company would step in and buy it if we weren’t able to sell it. The first time this happened was in 1981, again in 1986, and in 1991. These were all crummy times in the real estate market but each time we were able to sell our house quickly (within a week or two) because we put it in beautiful condition and priced it very competitively.
If you’re being given a raw deal, what real difference does it make if turning down a job offer is detrimental to a career with a lousy employer? In other words, if it does turn out to be detrimental, you should be looking for a better job anyway.
By the way, I understand it costs the average company more than $100,000 to move an employee cross-country, so it’s flattering that they’re offering to transfer you.
Oh, I'd forgotten that part! Yes, that's true. We got hit with a big tax bill the following year after each move. A nasty surprise the first time it happened--we were out of pocket seven grand on what was then a $50K income (1981). At least in subsequent moves we were prepared and did some advance planning but it was still unpleasant to pay taxes on stuff you never saw.
Just a thought.
It’s pretty simple, given the facts you provide. Turning down the offer will be detrimental to your career. Accepting the offer will be detrimental to your wallet. Your choice.
My relocations have all been beneficial and completely paid for by my employer.
Oh, and welcome to FR.
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