Relocate or Severance Package

I was recently told that as part of our company’s RTO policy, they would like me to relocate across the country or I can take the severance package. I currently live in the Bay Area in California. I work in tech as a Senior PM. I’ve been with my company for 6 years. I like job security and the job market doesn’t look that great out there, but at the same time, I want to be close to my family and friends. I’ve lived here my whole life.

I’m not sure what to do exactly. I updated my resume and reaching out to my network to look for other opportunities locally. I now live near Silicon Valley so I can definitely do RTO with the tech companies there (recently moved to be closer to our Bay Area office). I guess it’s just a matter of luck in this competitive market where many have been recently laid off.

I have one month to decide.

I have a few concerns about relocating: • What if I choose to relocate, and then my company decides to layoff for another reason? I would be stuck in another state and figuring out how to relocate back to CA. • I love to shop locally and I’m not sure if they even have a farmer’s market or meat markets like the ones in CA. We’re so agriculturally diverse here and supply a large % of groceries to the rest of the country. • I would be a 6+ hours travel time away from my family. I’d miss out on the little ones growing up and a lot of life events. My parents are retired and while still “young” in some ways, life is short and who knows how much time I have left with them. I want to savor every moment I have with them. • I have a very active social life and always meeting up with my friends for Lego nights, concerts, dinners, board game nights, sports events, and mini weekend road trips. Many are getting married or having their first child, so lots of personal life milestone events too. • Big enthusiast in arts and music with annual memberships to several museums in SF. • Side hustle as a photographer so would have to rebuild my clientele as well as marketing in a new area and understanding the competition. I’ve also noticed that price packages is half of what is offered in the Bay Area. Of course, I can always add in travel cost and still book in CA if my clients are willing and value my work that much. • I love hiking, fishing, and camping. The ocean is the best, and California has so many national and regional parks with great hiking trails. I don’t know if I can be landlocked. Geographically, I like being by the water with access to the mountains, forests, and desert. • I like my 50-75 degree weather year round with the occasional lows of 40 and occasional highs of 85. Moving to a city that has summer highs of 90-100 was already much for me but at least I have the option to travel an hour north to somewhere cooler. Not that many options in the Midwest. • As a POC, I am definitely worried that I’ll get shot just for being different or at least heavily discriminated against. I’ve already experienced this in Northern California, in places like Humboldt, Eureka, etc. Even in CA, there are places I avoid because of their racism. • There’s no public transportation and no sideways. Is this normal for other states or just areas that are a bit more rural? I like my trains, buses, and ferries. I also walk every day. Many restaurants, stores, small businesses are within a mile walk from my home. I have a car but often opt for walking whenever I can.

The benefits to relocating: • I get to keep my salary and may have more disposable income. My total comp is $260K. • Rent will be at least $1200 less a month, saving me at least $24K a year. • I can wait it out and stay there until the job market improves and buy me some more time in at least having a job and in looking for other opportunities. • I can build a bigger network at my company, get more visibility with leadership, and potentially move up the corporate ladder faster than working remotely. (The problem I’ve seen with remote work is that while I am getting more done and hitting my deliverables, I’m not getting as much visibility as I used to when I worked in an office.) • My engineers are based there so I would be able to see them more on a regular basis and have less business trips. • My partner has some job opportunities there and we wouldn’t have to worry about him leaving his current company. • We would have the opportunity to experience a different part of America and gain different cultural experiences. We would also be closer to the East Coast and South and be able to do more domestic travels there. So far, we have been to all the West states reaching as far as Colorado with the occasional visit to NYC.

I appreciate any advice I can get. If you were in my position, what would you decide? Obviously, I know this is subjective as everyone is different but it could help me gain more perspective.

Thank you!