[rb808]

2014 - its interesting this is when headquarters moved from NJ to Florida. Its a bit like SV - are California/North East expensive because its worth it? I'm not sure if Hertz went downhill because of the move or you just can't run a smart company from Florida.

[njt]

I have a family member that worked for Hertz during the time of this move.

After a lot of consideration and soul searching, they decided not to move down because both his family and his wife’s family were in the North East U.S. and they had small kids who wouldn’t have adjusted well to a cross-country move.

So somewhat reluctantly, he resigned his job with Hertz and stayed back while the rest of the team moved down. It was difficult for him because he had worked there for a number of years to reach the level that he was at and essentially reset when he switched jobs.

Anyway, a short time after that, he found out that everyone he worked with and had made the move to Florida had been laid off by Hertz.

He dodged a bullet on that one. I always suspected the move was a strategic-but-unethical one by Hertz to terminate a whole bunch of people without drawing too much attention to themselves. (Older employees with families typically don’t make moves like that, and you can easily get rid of the rest after.)

[stevetursi]

Can confirm, I have many anecdotes of folks who moved and regretted it, and people who found new local jobs who were grateful. It was gut-wrenching for almost everyone.

Our department was an exception. We got to stay in NJ (they laid us all off two years later.)

[khuey]

You can probably run a smart company from Florida if you start there but can you transplant a company from New Jersey to Florida and expect it to survive?

These corporate HQ moves don't seem to work out well (e.g. Boeing)

[blaser-waffle]

Physical locations matters. I feel like we're appreciating the advantages -- but also the deep shortcomings -- of remote work and distant offices.