Well, the Big Co. has made a suggestion that we “could” think about relocating the group to a new city.  It wasn’t a heavy-handed suggestion.  In fact, they specifically said we were free to stay put if we so choose.  Little did they know the can of worms they were opening.

People are very particular about where they live.  They want to be close to family, they want amenities that interest them, they want affordability or low taxes or a certain political leaning.  It goes on and on and on.  Trying to get a group consensus, even among a small group, as to a city to move to is darn near impossible.  Here are the considerations from the Big Co.

1. It would be nice to be in a place geographically close the them.
2. It would be nice to be in a tech-centric place, where talent could be sourced long-term.

Sounds simple enough, right?  Wrong.  It’s far from simple.  On top of that we have a slew of personal considerations from spouses as well as ties to our existing location with customers, professional networks, etc.

Cost-of-living is certainly an important factor as well.  Here is my analysis of cost-of-living across several considered cities.  The way it works is I picked a reference city and then showed the difference between the reference city and the city in the column.  Only Austin, TX was cheaper than the reference city, hence the numbers are in green. All the red numbers represent personal losses for me if I move to the respective city.

The table is too big, so it’s in two sections :

In the end we will probably stay in the reference city, but it’s not decided yet.  This is the most drama we’ve had with the acquisition yet!  Here’s to hoping we come out unscathed.