Negotiating an Internal Role

The Challenge:

Tom wanted to move back to the Northeast where he grew up, but he was making very good money as director of vendor relations for a California-based defense contractor. Tom liked his job; however, the combination of a demanding travel schedule and laborious daily commute were interfering with life balance. The fact that his closest family was New England-based meant that he saw them more on business trips than for family occasions. Since his company had no presence in the Northeast, and he had virtually no time to conduct a job search, Tom had nearly decided to resign his position and find work back home.

The Solution:

Job Guy pointed out that his employer and he actually had a common problem. The company was spending thousands of dollars repeatedly sending him East for extended business trips. His travel and expense account dwarfed his annual salary. Since he was spending less and less time in the office, it became clear to him that being based in California no longer made good business sense for anyone. But his company was large, very controlling, and set in its ways; he would have one chance to make a pitch and that pitch had to be compelling.

Tom created multi-year time and expense projections that outlined how much his travel was going to cost the company going forward. He further demonstrated a competitive disadvantage regarding responsiveness to critical customer issues on the East Coast. He proposed that, although he loved California, if the company would benefit from his being based in Massachusetts, he might consider moving. The company appreciated Tom’s apparent willingness to sacrifice and requested he relocate within the Eastern Time Zone.

The Result:

Tom moved at the company’s expense. He received full salary and was also “required” to work out of his house to save office expense, enhancing quality of life beyond what even Tom had thought possible. goes here