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by PaulHoule 2565 days ago
It's an interesting question.

How much less productive would these workers be if they were moved to Salt Lake City or Henderson, NV or Syracuse, NY?

If you lost 20% of the productivity but could pay 30% less that would be OK, wouldn't it?
4 comments
ghaff 2565 days ago
For starters, lots of them just wouldn't move. When companies move headquarters or other large facilities they usually expect to lose lots of people even if they cover relocation and actively try to hold onto people. (Which may, of course, not be the case if the company actually wants to lay off people.)

None of this is to argue that big tech companies shouldn't be more distributed. They probably should and it's happening to some degree naturally as they grow. But trying to move already employed people wholesale to a new city, especially one that many will see as relatively unattractive, will cost you a significant percentage of your workforce.

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TulliusCicero 2565 days ago
It's moot because they'd lose so many employees immediately that it'd be economic suicide. Google can't instantly conjure 5,000 more high quality engineers out of nowhere in SLC.

The most you'll see is something like what Amazon (sort of) tried with creating a "second HQ".

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rhinoceraptor 2565 days ago
In the long run they'd be as productive (or more, since the commute would likely be better). The problem is it would take months or years to move, and a lot of people don't want to or can't move, so they'd quit and find a new job almost instantly.
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erik_seaberg 2565 days ago
The fact that they can find a new job almost instantly is why they came here in the first place. It would take many competing employers showing up to make another labor market similarly appealing. You'd have to pay me a lot to move to the middle of nowhere, because not only am I not excited about living there, I'm still better off moving back here for the next job.
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malnourish 2565 days ago
In addition to what others have said, you have to consider what your competitors might do while you're spinning up. They could capitalize on your downtime.
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jonas21 2565 days ago
And to top it all off, those competitors would have the pick of your (former) employees who didn't want to move.
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