Advice needed. I currently work a 100% remote role for a company that happens to have its HQ office about 45 minutes away from my home. There are a handful of employees in this same boat. I have been with the company 2 years, am a high performer, and am well-liked. There is no requirement for “locals” to come work out of HQ, though many do drop in one a week or so. I do not (with rare exceptions, like a holiday party or a baby shower) because I am infinitely more productive at home. No one cares that I don't drop in. My supervisor does care. My department manager doesn't care. Whee!
The trouble is, my partner does not WFH and was recently laid off. He is job hunting and has reached the final round of interviews for a new position. It feels like an inevitability that he will get this job. The catch: we would have to move out of state if he takes this job.
I would like to keep my current job.
My company is, again, 100% remote and has employees located all over the country. On top of that, there are already employees at my company working in the state where we would be headed. I was hired as a remote worker with no expectation of being in the office despite being a “local” to HQ – they do encourage locals to come in but it is not mandatory and like I said before, no one has ever given me any grief for not coming in.
But if my partner gets this job and we start the wheels of moving, I'll have to let my company know that I will be relocating somewhere not-local. Half of my team is located out of state so in theory I feel like this is not a problem. In practice, I'm afraid that I will lose my job because there seems to be rumblings all over the place in this job market that companies want a RTO. This would be impossible with my company given that we are all scattered around the country, but I'm afraid that my choosing to no longer be “local” will be frowned upon.
If my partner gets this job, what would be the best way to approach this conversation with my manager? The core message I want to deliver is “I love working here and I would like to keep my job when we move, please let me do that because it wouldn't change anything about the way I work because I never come to HQ anyway.” (But more eloquent and professional than that.)
Conversely, a friend of mine who is a former employee of my company (was pushed out of her job due to shitty politics which is another story for another day) told me to keep my mouth shut, quietly move, maintain residency in my current state (which wouldn't be hard as we are not planning to sell our house, we are going to allow my cousin to move in with her family and I would be visiting a lot to see them and my friends here and would be working here occasionally). and see how things shake out. This advice seems highly problematic. However, she used to run payroll at my company for our hundreds of remote workers nationwide, so her advice isn't exactly uninformed. On the other hand, she was pushed out of her job by a manager who had an agenda and it was really upsetting and she's understandably angry at the company and I know that is coloring her advice.
Another colleague who is a friend and works on my team currently in my same job function has also advised me to keep quiet if my partner gets the job. She is not local to HQ.
I really feel like it's not smart to not say anything if we are moving but I honestly don't know if this is a problem if I am still technically maintaining a residence in my current home state.
What do I do?
And before anyone asks – I will always be the trailing spouse in my relationship because my partner out-earns me by 3x and that is not likely to ever change due to his experience and his industry. I also, while I love my job, consider it to be a “day job”/”health insurance job” because I am a working musician and consider that to be my real career. I just happen to have lucked into a day job that I genuinely enjoy and I don't want to lose that. I don't have a “career track” in my day job's industry the way he does.
Any advice would be appreciated, especially if you are a manager who has been in this position with a remote-classified direct report who moved to a different state.