planning to move to austin oct 1st, start of the 4thQ which is notoriously busy. dont necessarily love my job, but love my boss. she's done a lot for me here, and it def pays the bills, so it all works out in the end.
would like to propose the option to telecommute from austin, since the bulk of my job is done online. if they accepted, i'd need a good amount of leadtime to make sure everything is in place for a smooth transition. could be 6 weeks worth of cleaning up files and making sure i have everything i need in place.
my boss & i def have some kind of 'friendship', or at least on some level we arent just yr typical coworkers. i owe her a great deal of respect for the way she's brought me in and then given me all the independence i look for to work basically on my own. so i dont want to screw her by giving her 2 weeks. additionally, i was thinking of proposing a 3 month 'trial period' where they could assess whether or not me working remotely would be too much of a hassle for them. this would serve 2 purposes:
1 - i dont need to look for a job, just yet, down in austin
2 - they dont get screwed for the busiest 3 months of the year

my boss also recently took on a lot more responsibility & she would be screwed if she had to go back to all the things she has basically taught me to do - it would nullify, for the time being, all the advances she's made here. she's also frequently told me 'i dont know what i would do without you here' without a hint of sarcasm, which for her is a small miracle.
i dont know if i'm shooting myself in the foot by considering giving more than a month's notice - in all fairness, like i said i would need plenty of time to get my shit together, and if they didnt go for it, i would like to at least do my boss the courtesy of giving her time to search for a replacement that i could help to train before i go. maybe i seem a bit too overzealous to do the right thing, but i consider her a friend and dont want to leave her high & dry.
so.....
has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing? is there any advice you can offer?

the davice is, austin is cool so head down there. especially 4Q you'll get some indian summer effects.

but you have to remember that this is just a college student speaking.

First of all, can you tell us why you are making the move?
I think the 3-month trial period sounds like a great idea, but do you think she'll selfishly do things to sabotage the period so that she has an excuse to say "No, I think you are better suited to work locally."

i'm honestly just not happy in nyc right now, and i need a change of pace. i'm tired of apt living, tired of the constant hassles, and tired of paying way too much money to live here. the old 'musicians who want to make it should live in nyc' thing worked for me 12 years ago, but i dont see the point in it anymore. i can do what i do from anywhere, and i'm pretty much out of the scene here except for the random experimental/noise stuff that me & my friend do.
additionally, the woman ive been with for a year or so went to UT and had asked me if i would be interested in moving down there for a while. i said yes.
as for my boss sabotaging things, she's not the type. i have never had any dealings with her that were not 100% direct and honest. there has never been a moment where i questioned her motivation, or wondered if she was trying to make things difficult for no reason.

edit: it's an overall quality of life thing for me. i want more outdoor time, i hate the subways, & i dont feel safe here after sep 11th.
and as far as my boss goes, if she thought it wouldnt work, she wouldnt let me try it. she'd say flat out 'this is not going to work'

Im not sure if I followed your thought process correctly but if she is your friend, then I would approach her as a friend and tell her exactly what you said here in terms of why you are leaving. Quality of life choice etc.

I dont see how giving more time would be shooting yourself by offering the option of telecommuting although I doubt they would go for it unless others in the company do it already (the old guard is very suspicious of this it seems)


Personally I would ask whether its a done deal that you are moving.. if so, approach your boss - your consideration of her situation gave me a warm feeling inside, and I tend to be a cold bastard- and say what you said here- propose the solutions your proposed here and see what happens, it may well be outside of her control? Anyhow

I think its a very standup thing to do- sure it may bite you in the ass, but that makes it even more stand up

good luck

I've given a month notice before when I knew an employer was going to be totally screwed if I just gave two weeks. The month was as much as I could really give as I had to push my start date for the new job but I felt better about doing and they appreciated it.

They even paid out all my unused personal days in addition to all my unused vacation days which wasn't company policy in appreciation.

I ended up doing a 3 month consulting project for the same firm several years later, and I'm sure the good will I'd bought with my dedication to them was very helpful in getting me that gig and with terms and compensation that weren't typical for the firm.

Your only risk is that they replace you before you'd ideally want to leave. But I'd say do the standup thing....its always a good idea to leave on as good terms as possible. People don't typically do the standup thing so when you do, people do recognize it and remember it. The good will and recommendations you're buying will be more helpful down the road than the few weeks of pay that you are putting at risk (and probably a low risk at that).

frdf speaks words of wisdom.

oh i absolutely plan to tell her the ONLY reason i'm leaving nyc is a quality of life issue. i like my job in terms of the folks i work with, i like riding my bike around town, i like seeing music when i want to... but i can live the more relaxed lifestyle i want elsewhere with more space and less nyc style hassle.
i was more wondering if people had any tips as to how to sell the idea of a telecommute - my boss works from home several times a month, i have on occasion, and we do have reps all over the country who dont work out of any dedicated office. of course, they travel a lot for work so it owuld matter less, but the point is i guess that i do all of my work online, with the 1 or 2x a week human interaction just b/c someone swings by my desk to ask a question that could also be answered over IM. it's a social thing, really, which i feel will have just as much of an effect on their decision to keep me or let me go as anything else.

I have no idea where you work or what type of company you work for, but here is my two cents as someone who manages a large team of telecommuters.

1. You need to look at your department budget and see if they can afford having you telecommute. They will be paying you for/reembursing you for a home office set up, cell phone, high speed line, PC, maybe a BlackBerry and your travel when they need you to come beck to NYC for meetings etc. Often when it seems pretty obvious that it would be just as easy to let you work form home, it becomes a cost issue.

2. Do the research before you present it. Package it together as a professional proposal. It will show that you are taking your own interest as well as your manager and the comapny into consideration. Give the written materials to your boss and ask her to look them over before you have a long talk about it. If one of my team were asking me to do something out of the ordinary, my first instinct is to say no because I'm fairly certain my boss will tell me the same. If I get something in writing, I just view it differently.

3. Don't be surprised if they accept part of your proposal- they may end up offering you something which is in between staying on in NYC and becoming a telecommuter. This compromise may end up wringing you out like a wet rag. Think through that before accepting it.

4. When you get a chacne to verbally present your telecommuting idea- take the "Jeapordy" approach and turn all of your answers and points into questions for them. "Have you considered that the costs of setting me up as a telecommuter may be considerably less than hiring and trianing someone new".

5. Depending on where your comapny is on it's budget cycle, they may be able to build your new home office into next year's budget and since you are working in advance on this, you may be able to get it in pretty fast.


Hope this helps

i cant believe i'm about to thank 'balls'. but seriously, thanks. this is the kind of input i was def looking for. my plan was to put together a 'proposal' of sorts, detailing all the particular 'against' reasons and coming up with solutions to those. additionally, that jeopardy approach idea sounds great. i'm def going to use that.
and just for clarity's sake, i work in a legal dept for ask.com, reviewing ad sales agreements, making sure we're going off of approved terms and that any changes to those have been ok'd by one of our attys or my boss. it's more like proofreading than legal work, but it's all done online which is a def + in terms of trying to sell the idea.

I definitely agree with the "Jeopardy" approach. You need to sell them the idea of you telecommuting is not only better for yourself, but good for the company.

Sounds like you've collected some great advice. As for the quality of life thing, I couldn't encourage you more to make the switch. I've only spent a couple of days in Austin, but the whole metro area is filled with nature and space. Not to mention the insane amount of music that is being produced down there. I'm sure if the ask.com gig doesn't continue, you could find work within enviro or entertainment law.